136 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



After jungle-fowl our recollections naturally 

 tend towards spur-fowl. 



The scientific name of this bird (Gallo perdix) 

 fully describes it, for it is half jungle-fowl, half 

 partridge, and is generally armed with two spurs 

 on each leg. Jerdon thus describes them : ' They 

 are only about the size of partridges ; have no 

 comb or wattles, but they have nude orbits, quite 

 the port of jungle-fowl, and the sexes differ nearly 

 as much, in which point they do not agree with 

 the partridge group. They, moreover, frequent 

 woods and dense cover, never coming into the open.' 



The male bird is generally armed with two 

 spurs on each leg, though they sometimes have 

 three, and sometimes two on one leg. and one on 

 the other; whilst the hen has usually one on each, 

 sometimes absent on one leg, and occasionally two 

 on one, and one on the other. There are, I believe, 

 two species, the red * and the painted f spur-fowl. 

 Both varieties I have personally met with, but 

 have shot most of the latter in the jungles of Berar, 

 and also among the coffee-plantations of Ceylon. 



down till exhausted. The pam gradually subsided, and then he fell 

 into a sound sleep, from which he awoke perfectly well. The book 

 is a most quaint one, and some of the descriptions of manners and 

 customs in the East very amusing. It was published by Longman, 

 Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne, and Thomas Fowler; Great 

 Torrington, Devon. 



* Gallo perdix spadiceus. f Gallo perdix lumlusus. 



