38 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV, 



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" distance away, and if the bird be behind a mound, or little 



" eminence it can be approached if the sportsman is cautious 



" and makes no noise." 



Mr. W. E, Wait of the Ceylon Civil Service who has been so 



good as to send me some very interesting notes on Ceylon game 



birds, says that he thinks the words " Chuck joy Joyce " describes 



the cry of the Ceylon jungle-fowl even better than does the usually 



accepted syllables " george Joyce." He adds : — 



" The cocks often crow in the morning before coming down 

 " from the branches on which they roost as I have several 

 " times found when stalking a crowing bird. I have general- 

 " 1}^ found them on a branch some 8 to 12 feet from the 

 " ground, never very high up, although Legge says that they 

 " roost on good-sized branches at a considerable height from 

 " the ground. 



" Both cocks and hens feed along the grassy strips b}?" jungle 

 " roads and paths in the mornings and evenings, especially if 

 " the ground is damp after rain. They do not, however, stay 

 " out very late, and by about 9-0 a. m. they have all entered 

 " into the jungle again, and the cocks have stopped crowing. 

 " Sometimes, however, if the weather is cloudy or wet and cool 

 " the}^ will stay out feeding all day long, even when it is 

 " actually raining. I remember once bicycling over a main 

 " road through a forest in the North- Western Province on such 

 " a da}' and within a distance of a mile or less I saw over a 

 " dozen birds, mostly cocks. 



" Hens with chicks keep more closel}^ to cover than do the 



" cocks, leading their broods about in the undergrowth, 



" uttering a little squeaky metallic chuck as they go, ap- 



" parently a call note to the little ones. The broods remain 



" together until the chicks are almost full-grown, but I have 



" never seen cocks accompanying hens with chickens. The 



" cocks are polygamous, and I have frequently seen one feed- 



" ing with two or three full-grown hens, but he sheers off as 



" soon as family duties commence." 



It is a very common idea amongst the natives of Ceylon that 



when the Jungle-fowl eat the seed of the " nilloo", a species of 



iStrohilanthes which grows from 5,000 feet upwards, they become 



either blind or drunk, in which condition they are rendered so 



devoid of all sense or are so incaj^able that they are often caught. 



It is rather difficult to say whether there are grounds for this belief 



or not. Bligh wrote to Legge in connection with this belief: — 



" About that season of the jear if village fowls be brought 

 " to the hills they rarel}^ escape a serious eye disease, which 

 " rapidly spreads throughout a given district, and in many 

 •' cases they become totally blind in two or three weeks. This 



