676 



BIRDS COLLECTED DURIISG FIVE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN THE 



HYLAKANDY DISTRICT, CACHAR. 



PART VII. 



By C. M. Inglis. 



[Continved from iMge 291 uf thh Volume-) 



Order GalUnce. 



Family Pliasianidcp . 



(jienns PGlyplectrum ( remm., 1813,) 



232 Hume, Cat. No, 803 quat.; Blanf. No. 1327. Polyplectrum chikquis 

 (Miiller). — 'The Grey I'eacock-Pheasant.. 



Native nam'^ Not very common here. 1 have (inly found it in dense jungle, generally on 

 — ejoor. ^^g summits of teeLihs. During the live years I was in Hylakandy I seldom 

 secured specimens, but whilst on a visit to Roopacherra in April, 1895, I 

 shot on an average one every morning, during the ten days I was there. 

 Every one I got took me several hours to secure, as the only way I managed 

 to shoot any was by patiently following up its call. They were all killed 

 perching on creepers a few feet from the ground. Out of s >me twenty or 

 so shot, a single male had on the right leg one spur and on the left two ; all 

 three being of the same size. 



Sub-Family Gallhvx. 

 Genus Gallus (Brisson, 1760,) 



233 Hume Cat. No. 812 j Blanf. No. 1328. Gallus feerugineus (Gmel.), — The 

 Red- J ungle-f owl, 



Nat'vename— Very common indeed. I have often flushed small parties of them from the 

 '^ * tea, in the early morning and evening. Several of the Roopacherra coolies 



used to snare a few every year by the mi ans of decoys, I have hatched 

 numbers of eggs under hens, fed the chicks on white ants, but never succeed- 

 ed in rearing a single bird. 



Genus Gennceus (Wagler, 1832,) 



234 Hume, Cai. No.S^O lev \ Blanf. No, 1339. Genn^us horsfieldi (G. A. 

 Gray). — The Black-breasted Kali] Pheasant. 



Xatiyp tnme Fairly common. At Roopacherra, there was a plice where one or two could 

 ~ " ^'^''^' generally be found. It was a patch of young tea surrounded on three 

 sides by a jungle and through it flowed a stream. In ' ense jungle I have 

 generally come acros^ it in the moist land bordering on the streams. They 

 are ^ ery pugnacious. Once I winged a female, she got into the jungle on 

 the slope of a teelah. It was very steep and I sent a man to catch the bird. 

 No souner had he caught her than ohe cock came rushing at him, he made a 

 thrust at it but couldn't hit it, the bird then retired, but only to renew the 

 attack a second time. It did this three or four times whilst the man was 

 bringing down its mate, in the end I shot it also. The Bengalis here keep 

 decoy birds, but though on one occasion I offered ten or fifteen rupees for 

 a ti.'aincd one, thfc man would not part with it. They breed htie in April. 



