RED JUNGLEFOWL 197 



JUNGLEFOWL AS GAME-BIRDS 



The ornithologist is indeed rash who ventures to tell in his own words the delight 

 which the sportsman takes in his pursuit of game. Let him, unhampered by scientific 

 fetters, relate what pleasure the wild Red Junglefowl can give to the huntsman, whether 

 he pits his own woodcraft and ability singly against these wary birds or fills his gamebag 

 more easily by the assistance of dogs or a line of native beaters. 



" When detached clumps of jungle or small hills occur in a jungly district where 

 these fowls abound, very pretty shooting can be had by driving them by means of dogs 

 and beaters ; and in travelling through a forest country, many will always be found 

 near the roads, to which they resort to pick up grain from the droppings of cattle, etc. ; 

 dogs will often put them up, when they at once fly on to the nearest trees. Young 

 birds, if kept for a few days, are very excellent eating, having a considerable game 

 flavour." — (Beavan). 



" Sometimes when thus beating for Junglefowl you meet with odd surprises. It 

 was in April 1853, in the good old days of palki dak, from Meerut to Mussooree. Three 

 nights we used to make of it when ladies were of the party, and the close of the second 

 night brought us to the Kheree Dak Bungalow, in broken jungly ground just south 

 of the Siwaliks. After breakfast I went out to look for Junglefowl, luckily with a rifle 

 (a heavy 2 oz. band spherical ball) in case of seeing cheetul. We beat a lot of low 

 jungle grass and scattered bushes, and I had got a partridge and a Junglehen, when I 

 turned into a very likely-looking nalla, about eighty feet deep, with sloping, well-grassed 

 sides, and at the bottom a narrow, perpendicular-sided water channel about four feet 

 deep and three feet wide, cut through the boulder clay. In this channel I walked, with 

 one or two men along the slopes on either side, and one or two above, all a little behind 

 me. Suddenly there was a shout on my left, and instantly a tremendous grunting. As I 

 seized my rifle from the shikari behind me, four black heads showed through the grass 

 immediately above me. I could not get out of the wretched water-course, which was 

 nearly up to my armpits, and without one second's hesitation one of the bears (the old 

 female as it proved) came down upon me like a thunderbolt. I got my first barrel ofl" 

 when she was about ten yards from me ; the second let itself off as her chest struck the 

 muzzle, and then I was knocked over, half-stunned and nearly crushed to death. I 

 don't know exactly how it all happened, but I found myself on my face, hardly able to 

 breathe; my head, arms, and body pinned down by the massive, motionless (lucky for 

 me) corpse of lady Bruin. Seeing that the bear was quite dead, my shikari and a good 

 pahari bearer I had soon pulled her off and released me, a mass of blood, a good deal 

 cut and bruised, but not really hurt ; my first bullet had gone straight through her from 

 stem to stern (2 oz. hardened bullet and six drams of powder), the other had gone right 

 through the heart and come out behind the ribs on the left side. 



"It will be well for griff's (as I then was) to bear in mind that, in the sub- 

 Himalayan ranges, at any rate, where Junglefowl are common, there bears and tigers are 

 not unlikely to be met with, and that they should never beat for Junglefowl in such 

 situations on foot without a rifle in trustworthy hands behind them, and never allow 

 themselves to be caught in such a trap as that in which I had stupidly placed myself. 



"In the autumn, after the millet-fields have ripened, they grow very fat on this 



