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



character from the Indian Jungle-fowl more decidedly than it does 

 in outward appearance, and is probably even more closely allied to 

 the domestic fowl than is the latter bird. It is on the whole less 

 wild, less of a skulker, and far more amenable to restraint and 

 domestication, for several writers record successfully rearing and 

 keeping these fowls together with their barn-door fowls. 



A regards choice of country to live in both Indian and Biirmese 

 forms seem to have similar likings. Gates writes : 



" There is no description of jungle from which this common 

 " bird is absent ; but if it has a predilection for any particular 

 " style of country, it is for the broken ground and ravines with 

 " dense vegetation. In these localities (and there are many 

 " such, especially at the foot of some of the Hill ranges) it is 

 " abundant to a degree. Considerable numbers are generally 

 " found together, the two sexes mixing freely together. In 

 " Bur mail, I think, Jungle-fowl are more common near tiny 

 " villages in deep forest than elsewhere, for in the neighbour- 

 " hood of these hamlets there is always a certain amount of 

 " paddy land, a good deal of low cover, and a running stream. 

 " They feed in the mornings and evenings, and during the 

 " middle of the day the}^ remain very quiet, either in some 

 "tree or well-concealed under low bushes or grass." 

 Mr. G. B. Moggridge (in a letter to the late Gol. Harington, 

 which the latter had kindly made over to me with all his 

 own notes) confirms what Gates saj'S, and also emphasises the 

 Jungle-fowl's love of cultivation. " Anyone who has done much 

 Jungle-fowl shooting soon learns to tell at a glance where the 

 birds will fly when put up, but if one does not know the ground 

 one is apt to take the first open space one finds, if it is fairly clear 

 all round for shooting, with disastrous resiilts. The two best pla- 

 ces I know are in Gargaw and Madaya^ but the former is the better 

 as there are places where both sides of the creek are cultivated for 

 miles, not with paddy, but in gardens. Here the favourite haunts 

 of the birds were in Lu, a species of grain (^Milmm 'paspalu'in), 

 Nantsi (Sessamer) and in gardens where a few Zeethe bushes had 

 grown up among the others. All round the villages in Madaya 

 you would find just as many birds as in Gargaw, but between 

 the villages is where the latter gains, the cultivation extending 

 so much further. We always found the beating very easy where there 

 was a creek to stand in or beat over. Jungle-fowl like stajdng 

 near water, and seem to haunt trees and bushes on the banks of the 

 creeks, not onlj^ because of the water itself, but also because they 

 prefer a clear space in which to spread their wings as they fly down 

 from their nests, rather than having to dive down in and out through 

 the closer set trees and bushes. At one place in the district, 

 Gargaw, Mr. P.E, Cleaver got 97 birds to his own gun in one day." 



