54 Allen's naturalist's library. 



Adult Male. — Hackles covering the mantle gohk?i-orange, with 

 a black band down the middle, those of the lower back and 

 rump bright orange-red, with a heart-shaped spot of glossy violet 

 on the terminal half of each ; chest, breast, and sides, like the 

 lower mantle, orange-red, with a dark maroon stripe down the 

 middle ; belly black, mottled with chestnut. Total length, 30 

 inches ; w^ing, 9 ; tail, 1 1 ; tarsus, 3. 



Adult Female. — Differs chiefly from the female of G. gallus in 

 having the secondary quills black and chestnut, irregularly 

 barred with buff ; the chest and sides mottled wuth black 

 and buff, and with whitish centres ; the breast white, frifiged 

 and marked with black. Total length, 17 inches; wing, 7-5; 

 tail, 4'9 ; tarsus, 2 '4. 



Range. — Ceylon. 



Habits. — Colonel Vincent Legge, the well-known author of 

 "The Birds of Ceylon," writes as follows: — "The Ceylon 

 Jungle-Fowl inhabits, in abundance, the greater part of the 

 island. In the low country, it is located in the greatest 

 numbers in the northern, eastern, and south-eastern divisions, 

 which, covered with jungle and possessed of a dry climate, are 

 specially suitable to the habits of the birds. . . . 



"The cock-birds are, as is the case with other species, most 

 pugnacious, and pass their time in the mornings and evenings 

 in giving out their well-known challenge-call, ' Cluk George 

 Joyce^ accompanied with the usual galline flap of the wings. 

 By using a pocket-handkerchief doubled up into a ball, placed 

 in the palm of the hand, and struck with the other, this sound 

 can be fairly imitated; and if the sportsman be out of sight, 

 w^ell concealed in a hollow in the ground, or behind a huge 

 log or stump, the cocks can be enticed near enough to be 

 shot ; they are so shy, however, that if the least sound be 

 made other than this flapping, they turn round and disappear 

 at once into the thicket. The natives produce the required 

 sound by striking the thigh with the open hand, slightly 



