THE MAHADEO HILLS. 123 



male in the possession of a native shikari, with the unmis- 

 takable antlers attached. Since then, too, I have heard of a 

 fine stag being shot there by a railway Engineer. I believe 

 they are not very numerous here ; indeed, the Sal forest, to 

 which I believe their range is confined, covers an area of only 

 a few square miles. 



I also found that the red jungle-fowl of North-eastern India 

 (G. ferrugineus) inhabits this Sal forest and the hills around 

 it, although, .so far as I am aware, it is not found anywhere 

 else in these hills further west than the great Sal belt of 

 Mandla. The other species of jungle-fowl, which properly 

 belongs to Western and Southern India (G. Sonneratii), is also 

 to be met with on the Puchmurree hills ; and I have shot both 

 species in the same day in the ravine where the Mahadeo Cave 

 is situated. The red fowl could hardly be distinguished from 

 many a specimen of the domesticated race either in appearance 

 or voice, while the grey fowl does not crow like a cock, and is, 

 I think, a much handsomer bird than the red. His peculiar 

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

 wax, are much valued for fly-dressing. Jungle-fowl 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 sup- 

 pose that the two species interbreed, 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 among the 



