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THE JUNGLE-FOWL. 51 
man to creep within shot or sight of the bird. The hen, too, 
announces the important fact of having laid an egg with the 
same vociferation as in the domestic state, but is silent ere the 
stealthiest footstep can approach her hiding-place, and, gliding 
with stealthy feet under the dense foliage, is soon far away in 
the deep recesses of the jungle. ‘Toa stranger it is not a little 
curious to hear the familiar sounds of our farmyards issuing 
from the depths of the wild forest. . . .” 
Mr. A. O. Hume remarks :—“To a certain extent the 
Jungle-Fowl zs omnivorous, and z/// eat not only grass and 
young shoots and flower-buds and seeds and grain of all kinds, 
but worms and grasshoppers and beetles and small land shells, 
but they are preferentially graminivorous, and I have examined 
scores which had eaten absolutely nothing but grain. 
“In the autumn, after the millet-fields have ripened, they 
grow very fat on this grain, and the birds of the year are then 
really good eating, but as a rule the birds one kills (be it 
confessed with shame, for it ought to bea close season), from 
March to June, when tiger-shooting in the tarai, when, the day’s 
sport over, one turns homeward towards the tents, are no whit 
better than ordinary village fowls. . 
‘*No one specially notices the extreme pugnacity of these 
birds in the wild state, or the fact that, where they are numerous, 
they select regular fighting-grounds, much like the Ruffs. 
“Going through the forest of the Siwdliks in the north- 
eastern portion of the Saharanpur district, I chanced one after- 
noon, late in March, on a tiny open grassy knoll, perhaps ten 
yards in diameter and a yard in height. It was covered with 
close turf, scratched in many places into holes, and covered ovei 
with Jungle-Fowl feathers to such an extent that I thought 
some Bonelli’s Eagle, a great enemy of this species, must have 
caught and devoured one. Whilst I was looking round, one of 
my dogs brought me from somewhere in the jungle round a 
freshly-killed Jungle-Cock, in splendid plumage, but with the 
base of the skull on one side pierced by what I at once con- 
E 2 
