2196 THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



tion. It is also found throughout the Malay Peninsula and eastward to Cochin- 

 China, Sumatra, Java, and the Philippines. When running or feeding, jungle fowl 

 droop the tail, but when challenging their rivals, or paying their addresses to their 

 mates, they carry it erect like the domestic cock. Of all their kind, these birds, 

 even in a wild state, are the most pugnacious, the males often fighting till one or 

 other of the combatants is killed. Besides the above, several other species are 

 known, such as the Ceylon (G. lafayetti), the gray jungle fowl (G. sonnerati}, from 

 India, which produces the hackles so much in request for making salmon flies, and 

 the green jungle fowl (G. varius), of Java, L,ombok, and Flores, distinguished by 

 having an entire upper margin to the comb, and only a single wattle on the throat. 

 The peacock pheasants present a different type, with their large, 



full, and rounded tails ornamented with metallic eye-like spots, the 

 Pheasants 



sides of the face being naked, or nearly so, and the legs of the males 



armed with two, and sometimes three pairs of spurs. Having a distribution very 

 similar to that of the jungle fowl, they only extend into India as far east as Darjil- 

 ing, and inhabit the dense hill forests ranging from a little above the sea level to an 

 elevation of some six thousand feet. The gray peacock pheasant (Pofyplectrum 

 chinquis) of the Indo-Burmese countries, is a remarkably-handsome bird, the male 

 having the general color of the upper parts brown dotted all over with dirty white, 

 and each of the feathers of the mantle and wings ornamented with a large, round, 

 dark green eye spot, showing violet, purple, and blue reflections, and edged with 

 successive rings of black, brown, and dirty white, the upper tail coverts and tail 

 feathers being similarly ornamented with pairs of oval spots, situated on each side 

 of the shaft at some distance from the extremity, and wholly green in one light and 

 purple in the other. The throat is thinly covered with white feathers, and the rest 

 of the under parts are brown with irregular, mottled, and dotted bars of dirty 

 white, the naked skin on the sides of the face being pale fleshy yellow. The 

 female is darker, and has the eye spot on the back and wings represented by black 

 spots slightly glossed with purple, while those of the tail are only present on the 

 outer feathers and are much reduced in size. Mr. Clarke, writing of this species, 

 says, it "is common in the northeast of Cachar, where it is found in dense bamboo 

 jungle, on the sides of ravines, and on the tops of low ranges of hills, wherever 

 there are jamum trees, as well as on the banks of the river Barak, wherever it is 

 well wooded. On the rocky faces of the Barak banks there is a tree which, during 

 the rainy season, is partially submerged, but in cold weather bears a fruit with 

 seeds like those of a chilli. On these the birds feed greedily in the early morning 

 and toward sunset; insects and worms, with this fruit, form their chief food, but I 

 have on one occasion found small land shells and pebbles in the stomach of an 

 adult male. ' ' 



Among the most singular representatives of the family are the 

 Lrg ph t ar & us pheasants, distinguished by their large size, enormously- 

 developed and eyed secondary quills, which far exceed the outer 

 flight feathers in length, and their extremely-long middle tail feathers. The shape 

 of the wing is specially remarkable, and may be regarded as representing the ex- 

 treme type of monal wing, the first flight feather being the shortest, and the tenth 



