224 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



her, or she may run slowly with many backward glances and occasional stops before 

 she disappears in the underbrush. After the first note of warning she is silent, and 

 upon the instant of utterance the chicks vanish, either squatting in their tracks or 

 taking a short run to the shelter of a mass of dead leaves or a fallen branch. 

 Here they remain until the hen returns. I once sat quietly for an hour, close to 

 where the chicks had disappeared, without hearing or seeing a sign from any of 

 them. The hen was in the neighbourhood, but did not show herself. In some 

 way she knew of my continued presence, but only twice, during the entire period, 

 did she repeat her warning dock ! When the young are three-quarters grown, 

 there comes a time when they do not seek to escape by squatting or hiding, while 

 yet their independence is not developed strongly enough to send them off at the 

 first alarm. More than one observer has noted that when the hen of such a brood 

 has been shot, the young would continue to run back and forth in the vicinity, 

 calling loudly, and loath to leave their parent. 



The food of the chicks consists chiefly of termites, as well as minute insects 

 scratched from among the leaves. 



In unfrequented districts, where the natives do not trap or molest the birds, 

 the hens with their broods show less fear of the approach of man, and even when 

 the cocks are present, they may be approached within gunshot. The cock is always 

 the first to leave, the hen and her brood following when one's steps have brought the 

 birds a few yards nearer. During the months when the young Junglefowl remain 

 with the parents, both of the latter are found together, although the cock never 

 incubates or approaches the nest closely. He remains in the vicinity, however, and 

 crows at intervals throughout the period of incubation. Several people told me the hen 

 cackled or called when she either deposits an tgg or leaves her nest to feed, but of 

 this I have no direct confirmation, and place no reliance upon it. She goes to the cock, 

 however, at such a time, and the two usually feed together, after which she returns 

 to her eggs. 



RELATION TO MAN 



The Junglefowl seems to have entered quite deeply into the life of the Singhalese 

 in past times, for both the wild bird, the domestic descendants of the Red Junglefowl 

 and the peafowl are found as ornaments in graves and elsewhere. We find these 

 represented in all periods, that of bronze work, about five hundred years ago ; later, 

 when brass became the general medium, during the eighteenth and nineteenth 

 centuries, and in the comparatively modern and recent period of pottery. The old 

 cocoanut-oil lamps, used in the temples during the bronze and brass periods, are 

 more often than otherwise surmounted by figures of these birds. 



To-day the Junglefowl seems to be holding its own in many parts of Ceylon, 

 in spite of more or less trapping throughout the year. It adapts itself in a measure 

 to deforestation, and is able to live in coffee plantations or in scrub of reasonable 

 density in the absence of jungle. In the hill districts, if anywhere, the bird is 

 becoming scarcer. A few instances have been brought to notice where these birds 

 systematically injure newly-planted crops, so that they had to be shot or frightened 



