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



Jungle-fowl ai'e jiist as great skulkei'S and runners as are nearly 

 all other tropical game birds of the Pheasant tribe, and almost in- 

 variably prefer to seek safety on their legs rather than b)^ wing, in 

 fact except when one has good dogs or can work cultivated ground 

 as above, it is absolutely impossible to get the birds to rise unless 

 a regular beat is organised. 



We used to have quite good shooting for from 4 to 6 giTus in the 

 N. Cachar Hills with a line of 20 to 40 coolies. Our method used 

 to be for the guns to keep well ahead of the betters along jungle 

 paths or the beds of streams, a gun on either side of these latter 

 when possible, whilst two other guns went along the extreme wings 

 of the lines. In the mornings and evenings the birds were always 

 found low down in the valleys near the water, and \evj favourite 

 haunts were the numerous scrub covered islets which were dotted 

 all along the stream. The line of coolies worked down the stream 

 and about a hundred or two hundred yards up the sides of the hills 

 on either side. The birds generally ran some distance in front of 

 the shouting line of coolies and then broke across the stream, 

 flying up the opposite hill and so giving real sporting shots at 

 good distances. In this way we would sometimes get 30 or 40 

 birds in a morning and evening, chiefly Jungle-fowl but with a 

 few Black-backed Kalij, an old bambooo partridge or so and per- 

 haps a deer thrown in. 



The Jungle-fowl is not an easy bird to kill and flies far faster 

 and takes much straighter powder then a novice would imagine. A 

 friend of mine who came out to India with the well-deserved 

 reputation of being a real good pheasant-shot, at first when asked 

 to do so absolutely refused to go out and shoot barn-door fowls, 

 as he called them. He was, however, eventually induced to go out 

 after Kalij Pheasant, and in the course of this shoot succeeded 

 in firing well behind several Jungle-fowl which were put up to his 

 gun. After this we heard no more contemptuous remarks against 

 them, although, once he had taken their measure he became as fine 

 a shot at these birds as at our home pheasants. 



I have never been present at any very big shoots at Jungle- 

 fowl, our shoots being merely scratch affairs got up at a moment's 

 notice when we could get a day or half a day off" work, but the 

 railway oflacials under the leadership of Mr. Vernon Woods used to 

 have an annual Jungle- fowl shoot at which very big bags were 

 made. 



A great charm about Jungle-fowl shooting, whether in big beats 

 or alone with a couple of shikaries or beaters is the wonderful variety 

 of game one meets with, both large and small. 



It is many years now since Hume warned Griffs as to the 

 necessity for being prepared for any eventuality when shooting 

 small game in heavy jungle, and this warning holds good now just 



