SPORT IN THE JUNGLES OF N. INDIA 155 



pierced through my skin and bones, accustomed to the damp 

 heat of Eastern Bengal. 



As we walked along the road in the direction of the 

 forest, darkness began to give way to light and trees leapt 

 out of the obscurity to take on their diurnal appearance. 

 The sky from a dark blue-black flamed to red and then 

 changed to pale yellow in the east and the night was 

 a thing of the past. Once a grey shadow appeared on 

 the road and silently dis- 

 appeared into the grass on 

 the left. It was a jackal. 



At length we reached the 

 spot and took up our 

 positions about midway in 

 a broad stony ravine, the 

 orderly and his assistant ^- ~"^ 



arranging a small screen of branches and grass to hide our 

 position. 



The first rays of the sun were just appearing over the 

 hill-crests behind us as we got into our places and a twitter- 

 ing, singing, and shrieking bird-life had begun to send up its 

 morning paean of praise. Lower down the nullah three 

 pea-fowl and a cluster of jungle fowl were scratching for 

 food in the dry river-bed. Now and then a cock, perched on 



the fallen trunk of a forest 

 monarch, would elevate 

 himself, flap his wings, and 

 crow a defiance at a rival 

 in the neighbourhood, to 

 be promptly answered by 

 a counter-challenge which 

 was taken up in several 

 other quarters. I was too 

 used to the vociferous re- 

 criminations of these birds 

 to pay much attention to 

 them, but noted that the hens took httle notice of their 

 lords or their efforts to show off, being too intent on their 

 search for the morning meal. 



This red jungle fowl is the ancestor of all our varied 

 breeds of domestic poultry. If the latter are allowed to 

 revert to the wild state they assume the colouration 

 of the jungle fowl. An attempt has been made to introduce 



