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



over the greater portion, and the feathers droop in a graceful curve 

 when the tail is raised. The feathers of the neck and rump are 

 long and lanceolate, forming hackles, the latter falling well down 

 on either side of the tail. The legs are very powerful, and the 

 tarsus, which is furnished with a long shaft spur, is longer than 

 the middle toe and claw together. The females have no spur. 



Key to Species. 



A. — Comb and spurs highly developed. 



a. Neck-hackles red or golden-red with 

 no spots. 



a\ Breast black G. banhiva j . 



l)^. Breast reddish orange G.lafaveUii ^. 



h. Neck -hackles blackish with golden bars 



or spots G. so7inerati r^ . 



B. — No spurs and comb rudimentary. 



c. Breast rufous-brown with faint pale 



shaft lines G. JianMva $ . 



d. Breast mottled brown and black and 



white - G. lafaveftii 5 . 



e. Breast white, each feather edged with 



brown G. sonnerati 5 . 



There are two very distinct races or subspecies of the Common 

 Red Jungle-fowl inhabiting the one India proper excluding the 

 Indo-Burmese districts and the other extending through Burmah, 

 the Malay Peninsula, Cochin, China and Siam. In the outer 

 Burmese Indian districts of Eastern Assam and Chittagong we find, 

 as we should expect, an intermediate form between the two. 



The Indian form may at once be known by its pure, white 

 lappets, the Burmese form having these red, but there are other 

 differences also, the Indian bird, the true ferrugineus, has the 

 hackles of the neck of a red much less deep than they are in the 

 Burmese bird, moreover they are far more j^ellow or orange-yello^^' 

 at the base of the neck, and in addition are more lanceolate, the 

 Burmese form often having the ends comparatively broad instead of 

 p;?oduced to a very fine point. 



Hume recognised the differences between the Burmese and 

 Indian bird, and thus writes of them : — 



" I have referred to the Indian and Burmo-Malayan races of 

 "this bird. The plumage of the latter is said to be redder, 

 " and taking a large series there seems to be some truth in 

 " this, though in'iividual birds from Dehra Dun and Johore, 

 " for instance, can be entirely matched as regards plumage, 

 " but in the Burmese and Malayan birds, the small ear lappet 

 " is invariably red, whereas in the Indian it is almost equally ^ 

 "invariably vhite ov imilcy vhite.'' 



I 



