CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 217 



a series of harsh, shrill cries which convey their meaning to every creature within earshot. 

 The challenge is accompanied, especially in the early morning, by a clapping together of 

 the wings, and this appears to me to stand for a much more serious challenge than when 

 the crow alone is uttered. I shall speak of this in greater detail under courtship and 

 fighting. 



These Junglefowl are extremely adverse to flying, and invariably try to escape on 

 foot. I once saw a hen rise and partly fly, partly scale a distance of seventy-five yards 

 before settling again into the scrub — the longest flight of which I have record. More 

 fortunate observers say that they are strong on the wing, but all agree that they are 

 flushed with difficulty. There seems to be no racial weakness of wing power, only the 

 flat country which they prefer offers no incentive to exercise of this function. I have 

 already spoken of their swiftness of foot. Their gait when unalarmed is, as in the other 

 Junglefowl, dignified and alert. The tail is usually held quite low, except during 

 challenge, courtship, and approach to battle, when it is raised as high as in any domestic 

 cock. 



DAILY ROUND OF LIFE 



The food is varied, consisting usually of insects, wild seeds and grain, while 

 whenever possible the birds will enter cultivated fields and by scratching do considerable 

 damage to the newly-planted grain. The following list shows the contents of the crops 

 of eight birds from South Ceylon, shot in March : — 



1. Male. Nine large reddish berries with purple pulp ; several scarab beetles. 



2. Male. A few green seed-pods ; 5 grass seeds ; 23 termites. 



3. Male. One hundred and fifty green seed-pods; 7 small mollusks of three 



species ; several hundred termite workers. 



4. Male. One large tick. 



5. Male. Many grass seeds still on panicles ; i termite ; 2 small mollusks. 



6. Male. One large tick ; many grass seeds ; several scarab beetles. 



7. Female. Twenty-five seed panicles of grass ; i small beetle; 



8. Female. In the gizzard were 6 small, smooth, reddish stones, about 6 mm. in 



diameter, and a mass of black ants. The crop contained several hundred 

 termite workers ; i brown and 2 black beetles ; i grasshopper ; i small wood 

 roach ; several brown wood lice and centipedes ; a small snail ; a small 

 hemipterid insect, many green seed-pods, and several petals of flowers. 



The big ticks in the crops of Numbers 4 and 6 were alive and distended with blood, 

 which they were apparently drawing from the lining wall of the crop. Termites take 

 first place in the animal diet of Junglefowl, as in almost all tropical gallinaceous birds. 

 It is a general belief that the young cannot be reared except on these insects, and in the 

 birds which I was able to examine, it formed fully four-fifths of the food of the chicks. 



I have already mentioned the love which Junglefowl have for the berries of the 

 nilloo or cone-head plants, a species of Strobilanthes. Whenever this fruits among the 

 undergrowth of the hill forests it tempts the birds from far and near, and they flock 

 thither, coming even from the lowlands at the foot of the hills. This maturing of the 

 seed in quantity takes place at very irregular occasions, sometimes it is said, at intervals 



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