JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Bombay Natural History Society. 



Mar. 1017. Vol. XXV. No. 1. 



THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 



BY 



E. C. Stuart Baker, F.L.S., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Part XXI. 

 With a Coloured Plate. 



PHASIANIDiE. 



,Genus — GALL US. 



The Genus Gallus contains the true Jungle-fowl, of which there 

 are fo^ir species entirely confined to the Indo-Malaj-an region. 

 Jungle-fowls are closely allied to the true pheasants, like them 

 the sexes differ in plumage, the males greatly exceed the 

 females in size, and their haunts are well-wooded tracts with 

 an ample water suppl3^ The principal external difference is 

 in the tail which in the Jungle-fowl is sharply compressed whereas 

 in the true pheasants it is flat ; it is linked however with these 

 latter by many intermediate forms such as Gennceus, containing the 

 Silver and Kalij Pheasants, Crosoptilon or Eared Pheasants, etc., 

 in which the tails ai'e almost as compressed as in the Jungle-fowl. 



The males are all furnished with a fleshy crest or comb and with 

 wattles or lappets either hanging from each side of the throat, as in 

 all three of the Indian species, or with a single one from the centre 

 of the throat as in the Sunda Island bird, varhts. The tail consists 

 of fourteen feathers in our three species and of sixteen in the last 

 mentioned bird. The wings are well rounded, the first primary 

 being shorter than the tenth and the fifth the longest. The central 

 tail feathers in tlie male are greatly lengthened, being from three 

 to four times the length of the outermost, the shafts are pliant 

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