i88 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



miles distant, and on speaking to the men, found that they knew the place well, and one 

 of them said that he had repeatedly watched the cocks fighting there, and that he would 

 take me to a tree close by whence I could see it for myself. Long before daylight he 

 guided me to the tree, telling me to climb to the fourth fork, whence, quite concealed, 

 I could look down on the mound. When I got up it was too dark to see anything, but 

 a glimmer of dawn soon stole into the eastern sky, which I faced ; soon after crowing 

 began all round, then I made out the mound dimly, perhaps thirty yards from the base 

 of the tree, and forty from my perch ; then it got quite light, and a few minutes later 

 a Junglecock ran out on to the top of the mound and crowed (for a wild bird) vocifer- 

 ously, clapping his wings, and strutting round and round, with his tail raised almost 

 like a domestic fowl. 



"And here I should notice that although, as has often been noticed, the wild cocks 

 always droop their tails when running away or feeding — in fact almost whenever you see 

 them — yet I believe, from what I then and once subsequently saw, that, when challenging 

 rivals, they probably always erect the tail, and I know (having twice so surprised them 

 before they saw me, when watching for cheetul and sambhur from a machdn, near water 

 in the early morning) that when paying their addresses to their mates they do the same 

 during the preliminary struts round them. 



'' I learnt so much and no more ; there was a rush, a yelp ; the Junglecock had 

 vanished, and I found that one of my wretched dogs had got loose, tracked me, and was 

 now careering wildly about the foot of the tree. 



'' Next day I tried again, but without success. I suppose the birds about had been 

 too much scared by the dog, and I had to leave the place without seeing a fight there ; 

 but putting all the facts together, I have not the smallest doubt that this was a real 

 fighting arena, and that, as the Bunjara averred, many of the innumerable cocks in the 

 neighbourhood did systematically fight there. 



" Only a week later I shot two cocks, who were tumbling head over heels, a 

 confused mass, with wings and legs interlaced in an incredible manner, and on several 

 other occasions, when watching and waiting, concealed and in silence, for larger game, I 

 had witnessed desperate battles between cocks who happened to meet, attracted by each 

 others crows and flappings of wings, near my tree ambush." 



I have never been fortunate enough to see two wild cocks fighting, but I have 

 three separate times chanced upon what appeared to be fighting-places. In all cases 

 these were in small glades in bamboo jungle, and in one instance a half-decomposed 

 cock bird was lying in the centre. On two other occasions I have found where a Jungle- 

 fowl had been plucked and doubtless eaten by an eagle or owl, and there was no doubt 

 as to the distinction between the two situations. The widespread abundance of hackles 

 and body feathers, the tracks, the sign, all indicated a much-frequented arena. My 

 attention was attracted to two of the three places by the constant crowing in early 

 morning, and this crowing did not die out little by little, with longer and longer 

 intervals between the challenges, but suddenly, with suggestive abruptness, as might 

 occur if a rival appeared on the scene. I believe that the combatants in these places 

 are chiefly young or unmated birds, and that hens are to be found somewhere in the 

 vicinity, although my belief in this is based chiefly on my observations of other 

 species of Junglefowl. The mated birds keep together and do not range far afield, 



