HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



dogs. I have no personal experience of these birds to 

 record. 



The next sporting bird on the list is the spur fowl 

 (Galloperdix bicalcarata), which also, I regret to have to 

 confess, I have never shot. As this bird is only found 

 in Ceylon, I must give a description of the same culled 

 from Captain Legge's fine book: "Length, 13.5 to 13.8 

 inches ; bill, legs, and feet red. From head to tail, all 

 along the back, except the principal wing coverts, black, 

 brownish to brown on principal wing coverts ; head and 

 neck spotty-striped white, changing into narrow drop-shaped 

 spots, black-centred white on wing coverts ; face, throat, 

 and all the breast, whitey feathers with marked black 

 margins. The females are brown to blackish-brown, with 

 white chins ; legs, feet, and bill not so dark red as in the 

 male." 



The males have the spurs, generally two on each leg, 

 sometimes three on one, two on the other, from which they 

 get their name ; the females have one on each leg generally, 

 sometimes two on one leg, and at times wanting on one. 

 This peculiar bird is found all over Ceylon forest country, 

 more or less, except the far north, from low country up 

 to about 5000 feet elevation. Personally, I have often 

 heard its call, a curious piping whistle impossible to 

 describe except by musical notes, in the low country forests, 

 but have never even set eyes on the bird as it is about 

 the shyest of all in the island. Sometimes they may be 

 met with on hill estates, bordered by forest, feeding along 

 the edge of the jungle at dawn about the only chance 

 of ever getting a shot at one unless you have dogs and 

 are lucky enough to put them up in fairly open jungle. 

 I don't recommend a special journey to bag these birds 

 unless you are keen on getting a specimen. Having ex- 



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