276 BIRDS 



is more wild and racy. He has the bright red neck hackles, 

 shoulder-bar and saddle, and the black breast and tail of 

 the bantam to such perfection that the purity of the alleged 

 wild bird is not easily determined. The writer has seen 

 several undoubted bantams, brought direct from India as 

 Jungle-fowl. 



The hen resembles with equal exactitude the bantam hen, 

 having the same partridge-brown back, the black-centered, 

 gold-edged hackle and salmon breast. In examining speci- 

 mens of both types the only noticeable difference is in the 

 hackles, which appear to be somewhat longer and fuller in 

 the wild bird. 



One curious trait of the wild cock is the fact that the long 

 feathers of the neck are replaced by short, blackish ones 

 for about two months, during the molting season. It seems 

 strange that this distinct eclipse has not persisted in the 

 domestic descendants of the bird. 



The Red Jungle-fowl is still found abundantly in many 

 parts of India, the Malay Peninsula and the adjoining 

 islands. It appears to have a fondness for bamboo jungles, 

 where no doubt it is able to secure better protection. Wild 

 cocks frequently invade the poultry yards of outlying settle- 

 ments, and domestic birds not uncommonly join their feral 

 cousins, so that in some localities the purity of apparently 

 wild birds is not always certain. 



Three other species of Jungle-fowl are known : the Son- 

 nerat {G. sonnerati), the Ceylon (G. lafayettei) and the 

 Javan (G. varius). The Sonnerat cock is gray in general, 

 the feathers of the neck, the wing coverts and the saddle 

 being ornamented with yellow, wax-like appendages. The 

 feathers of the breast are narrow and pointed. The tail 

 is black. All of the specimens observed by the writer have 

 had heavy pendent combs, although this character appears 

 to be variable. This species goes through the same eclipse 



