MASON AND LEFROY. 227 



is, at the time, in seed. It lives chiefly upon various kinds of wild 

 seeds and grain and more especially on white ants. We have often 

 seen this species enter cultivated areas in large flocks scratching and 

 picking up the grain with great ease. Mr. Layard- " Mother leads 

 them* the young V to decaying prostrate trees and scratches 

 for white ants which they eagerly devour. Captain W. V. Legge 

 ' At times when the nilloo, a plant whose seed the Jungle-fow* 

 greatly affects, is in flower great numbers resort to the jungles of the 

 upper hills of the Nuwara Eliya district. My friend informs me that 

 they were so numerous and apparently so stupefied that. H. M. 

 G. B. I, 245. 



1330. Gallus sonnerati. Grey Jungle-fowl. It feeds on various 

 kinds of grain and very much on insects, especially on various kinds 

 of bugs, larvae of small Blattse, &c. Jerd. B. I. Ill, 543. Davison 

 says : " When a tract of bamboo comes into seed, or any other parti, 

 cular food is locally abundant, they collect there in vast numbers 

 dispersing again as soon as the food is consumed. I remember on 

 one occasion when the undergrowth of the Sholas about Puykarra 

 (which consists almost entirely of Strobilanthus sp.) seeded the jungle- 

 fowl congregated there in the greatest numbers, I mean by hundreds, 

 and were excessively numerous for more than a fortnight, when they 

 gradually dispersed, owing I believe, not so much to the seeds hav- 

 ing all been eaten, as to what remained of them having sprouted 

 and so become uneatable as for food they seem to eat almost any- 

 thing ; grain, grass, seeds, grubs, small fruits and berries and insects 

 of different kinds. I have sometimes killed them with nothing but 

 millet in their crops ; at other times quantities of grass seeds or again 

 after the grass has been recently burnt the tender juicy shoots of 

 new grass/' H. M. G. B. I. I, 233-236. 



1333. Catreus wallichi. Cheer Pheasant. ' The Cheer phea" 

 sant feeds chiefly on roots for which it digs holes in the ground ; 

 grubs, insects, seeds, and berries and if near cultivated fields, sever- 

 al kinds of grain form a portion; it does not eat grass or leaves like 

 all the rest of our pheasants. Jerd. B. I. Ill, 530. Hume and Mars 

 shall quote Jerdon. H. M. G, B. I. I, 174. This pheasant feed" 



