CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 221 



hand, in September are far from unknown. In the Batticaloa district it is said that eggs 

 are found every month except in November, December and January. In the province of 

 Noa, April, May and June are given as the most favoured months ; in the northern 

 parts of the island nests are found from February to August more often than at other 

 times. 



The Ceylon Junglefowl are very pugnacious. The clapping of the wings and the 

 crowing are the preliminaries to battle, although much of this demonstration may be 

 considered in the nature of bluff or of warning. One correspondent, Mr. Thomas, writes 

 me that he considers the clapping as answering the purpose of a long stretch immediately 

 after awakening, and to support this theory, makes the comment that it is seldom or 

 never heard except before the first crow or challenge uttered in the early morning. 

 Referring to a Junglefowl cock which he kept for some time in captivity and from which 

 he bred a number of hybrid birds, he notes that if unexcited the cock would never clap 

 his wings after the first call. On hearing another cock, however, he would do so once 

 or twice, " probably in the.nature of a stretch to feel if he was in fighting trim." I must 

 take exception to this view, owing to the facility with which cocks may be called up by 

 imitating the clapping of the wings, even when an attempted imitation of the crow is 

 not added. Indeed, by use of the latter challenge alone, it is a much more difficult 

 matter to entice the challenging cock within shooting distance. I shall give more in 

 regard to this aspect later. 



It is true that the clapping is usually confined to the first few crows. Whether 

 this had its origin in the desire to stretch the wings in preparation for a flight to the 

 ground from the elevated roost, we shall probably never know. To-day, at least, it is 

 an important and significant part both of the audible challenge and defiance, and actually 

 more potent than the crow itself to precipitate an encounter. 



The cocks inhabiting the same general region, if mated, undoubtedly have a more 

 or less definite territory over which they hold sway, and into which the advance of a 

 strange cock is considered an intrusion to be disputed with all their powers of offence, 

 and if necessary with their life. Cocks settled on adjacent beats or preserves do not 

 advance to the attack at one another's early morning challenge, whether of clapping, 

 crowing, or both together. Each, however, reacts at the very first sound, and a few 

 seconds after the first bird awakens and challenges, every cock within hearing has thrown 

 off his slumber and returns the defiance with all the force of his lusty lungs. A roving, 

 unmated cock is detected at once, and he must either make his way silently across 

 country, or be distinctly looking for trouble if he challenge anywhere in the vicinity of a 

 settled cock. 



The first one or several calls are given from the roost itself. The bird then 

 usually descends to a low branch, and for a variable period of time devotes itself to 

 crowing. In this situation the observations of several writers agree perfectly with 

 my own. The bird walks or struts back and forth along the branch, lowering and 

 raising his head. When crowing, the head and neck are stretched far upward. Where 

 the bird has no room for lateral movement it nervously raises first one, then the 

 other foot, during the intervals of crowing. It seems usually to have some particular 

 rival within hearing, for whose challenge it listens. As soon as it has finished a 

 crow, it steps or moves about, but the instant the clap or the crow of the other bird 



