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



The slightest snap of a twig or iTistle of a leaf and, even is in the 

 middle of a crow, it collapses, and when you arrive the bird has 

 gone. About the only time a Jungle-cock can be caught un- 

 awares is when he is fighting, and then, so intense is his interest 

 in the business on hand that I have known them caught by natives 

 siuiph' throwing a cloth over the two struggling birds. 



They are quite as pugnacious in their wild state as sluj breed 

 of game cocks, and often fight to the death, indeed on some occa- 

 sions until both birds are h or s-de- combat. One such occasion came 

 within my own knowledge when my coolies picked up a dead 

 Jungle-cock on the forest path, and just beside it another cock, 

 blinded and so weak that it made no attempt to escape when 

 caught and died before it could be bro.ught into camp. They will 

 also fight with pheasants and other birds, and I was once fortunate 

 enough to see the whole of a fight between a Jungle-cock and a 

 Black-backed Kalij. 



At the time this occurred I was seated behind a bamboo clump 

 in a thicket of low bushes watching a Mikir attempting to call 

 up Jungle-fowl. We had been there about ten minutes when his 

 calls — made to simulate a hen chuckling and scratching about for 

 food — attracted a cock who replied by crowing for two or three 

 minutes, after which fluttering down from his bamboo perch, he 

 strutted into the small open piece of ground immediatel}^ in front 

 of us. At the same moment a fine cock Kalij also came into the 

 open about five paces away, and without a second's hesitation the 

 cock rushed at him, and taking him unawares bowled him over. 

 The pheasant was, however, much the bigger bird of the two and 

 apparently unhurt, though somewhat confused hj the rush tactics 

 of his enemy, at once took up the gauntlet. For a few seconds 

 the two birds faced one another, beaks low down to the ground 

 and tails raised, and then like lightning the Jungle-cock rose and 

 jumped over the pheasant, striking lustily as he passed and making 

 the feathers fly. 



No real damage was done by this, and the pheasant wheeling 

 once more faced his active little adversary. Again the two birds 

 walked round like a couple of pugilists, watching intently everj' 

 movement of the other ; heads never more than a couple of feet 

 apart, until one or the other made his effort, with varying success, 

 to pass over the other bird striking as he leapt. 



Similar proceedings went on for the next ten minutes, the 

 pheasant occasionally taking the offensive, but seldom with anj- 

 effect. By sheer weight he now and then succeeded in bowling 

 over his enemy, but slowness in taking advantage of his momentar}'^ 

 success always enabled the Jungle-fowl to slip away and again 

 attack. At the end of the time mentioned it was a wearj?- and 

 l)leediug pheasant v/hich faced a still alert and fresh Jungle-fowl ; 



