THE MAHADEO HILLS. 131 



each feather tipped as with a drop of yellow sealing-wax, 

 are much valued for fly-dressing. Jungle-fovvl shooting 

 with spaniels in these hills is capital fun. The cover 

 they frequent is very thick, and they take a good 

 hustling before they fly up and perch on the trees. 

 When you approach they generally fly off, and are 

 very clever at putting a thick cover between themselves 

 and the gun, making the shooting by no means so easy 

 as it looks, so that a couple of brace are a good bag for 

 a morning's sport. I never saw reason to suppose that 

 the two species interbred, nor that either of them 

 crosses with the domestic fowl of these hills. 



I have already remarked on the singularity of thus 

 finding a patch of the forest peculiar to Eastern India, 

 together with its most characteristic mammals and birds, 

 isolated amonsf the veo^etation and fauna of the west, at 

 a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles from 

 the nearest point of the main forest to which thej^ 

 belong. 



Two species of spur-fowl are pretty common on the 

 hills. The one is the common little red bird,* which, 

 but for its size, might easily be mistaken for the red 

 jungle-fowl, being very like a small bantam cock. The 

 other species is, I think, the same as the painted 

 spur-fow],t an exceedingly handsome bird, with a long 

 double spur on each leg. The latter species is gene- 

 rally found on the edges of the ravines, down which 

 it drops, when flushed, like a stone, and can seldom be 

 found again. The red bird I found chiefly on the little 

 broken hills that surround the plateau, and in the same 

 places as the jungle-fowl ; and very pretty sport it gives 

 with spaniels. 



* Gallojperdix spadiceus. f G. lumulosu?, Jerdon. 



K 2 



