Chapter CHICK to CHICKORE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow.

1875.—“ ‘Can’t do much harm by losing twenty chicks,’ observed the Colonel in Anglo-Indian argot.”—The Dilemma, ch. x.

CHICKEN, s. Embroidery; Chickenwalla, an itinerant dealer in embroidered handkerchiefs, petticoats, and such like. P. chikin or chikin, ‘art needlework.’ [At Lucknow, the chief centre of the manufacture, this embroidery was formerly done in silk; the term is now applied to hand-worked flowered muslin. (See Hoey, Monograph, 88, Yusuf Ali, 69.)]

CHICKORE, s. The red-legged partridge, or its close congener Caccabis chukor, Gray. It is common in the Western Himalaya, in the N. Punjab, and in Afghanistan. The francolin of Moorcroft’s Travels is really the chickore. The name appears to be Skt. chakora, and this disposes of the derivation formerly suggested by one of the present writers, as from the Mongol tsokhor, ‘dappled or pied’ (a word, moreover, which the late Prof. Schiefner informed us is only applied to horses). The name is sometimes applied to other birds. Thus, according to Cunningham, it is applied in Ladak to the Snow-cock (Tetraogallus Himalayensis, Gray), and he appears to give chá-kor as meaning ‘white-bird’ in Tibetan. Jerdon gives ‘snow chukor’ and ‘strath-chukor’ as sportsmen’s names for this fine bird. And in Bengal Proper the name is applied, by local English sportsmen, to the large handsome partridge (Ortygornis gularis, Tem.) of Eastern Bengal, called in H. kaiyah or ban-titar (‘forest partridge’). See Jerdon, ed. 1877, ii. 575. Also the birds described in the extract from Mr. Abbott below do not appear to have been caccabis (which he speaks of in the same journal as ‘red-legged partridge’). And the use of the word by Persians (apparently) is notable; it does not appear in Persian dictionaries. There is probably some mistake. The birds spoken of may have been the Large Sand-grouse (Pterocles arenarius, Pal.), which in both Persia and Afghanistan is called by names meaning ‘Black-breast.’

The belief that the chickore eats fire, mentioned in the quotation below, is probably from some verbal misconception (quasi atish-khor ?). [Th is is hardly probable as the idea that the partridge drinks the moonbeams is as old as the Brahma Vaivarta Purana: “O Lord, I drink in with the partridges of my eyes thy face full of nectar, which resembles the full moon of autumn.” Also see Katha Sarit Sagara, tr. by Mr. Tawney (ii. 243), who has kindly given the above references.] Jerdon states that the Afghans call the bird the ‘Fire-eater.’

c. 1190.—“…plantains and fruits, Koils, Chakors, peacocks, Sarases, beautiful to behold.”—The Prithirája Rásan of Chand Bardái, in Ind. Ant. i. 273.


In the following passage the word cator is supposed by the editor to be a clerical error for çacor or chacor. 1298.—“The Emperor has had several little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of cators, which are what we call the Great Partridge.”—Marco Polo (2nd ed.), i. 287.

1520.—“Haidar Alemdâr had been sent by me to the Kafers. He met me below the Pass of Bâdîj, accompanied by some of their chiefs, who brought with them a few skins of wine. While coming down the Pass, he saw prodigious numbers of Chikûrs.”—Baber, 282.

1814.—“…partridges, quails, and a bird which is called Cupk by the Persians and Afghauns, and the hill Chikore by the Indians, and which I understand is known in Europe by the name of the Greek Partridge.”—Elphinstone’s Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 192 ; [“the same bird which is called Chicore by the natives and fire-eater by the English in Bengal.”—Ibid. ii. 95].

c. 1815.—“One day in the fort he found a hill-partridge enclosed in a wicker basket. …This bird is called the chuckoor, and is said to eat fire.”—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog., 440.

1850.—“A flight of birds attracted my attention ; I imagine them to be a species of bustard or grouse—black beneath and with much white about the wings—they were beyond our reach ; the people called them Chukore.”—K. Abbott, Notes during a Journey in Persia, in J. R. Geog. Soc. xxv. 41.