CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 227 



refused to depart from the scene of her captivity. But as her removal was deemed 

 necessary, she was caught and taken across a ravine and liberated in the jungle some 

 quarter of a mile away. Next day, however, she turned up again, trying to get into the 

 run. She was caught a second time and taken further afield and liberated. After this, 

 as she did not return, it was thought she had gone for good. However, some days 

 later she was back again. She was now quite cured of the chicken-pox, having 

 evidently cured herself in the jungle, either by eating some herb or by living in 

 surroundings natural to her. After this she continued to live in the garden outside 

 of the run, and used to walk about with some of the young hybrids which Mr. Johnson 

 had bred, roosting at night in the branches of a tree along with the hybrids. The fact 

 of consorting with the wild hen rendered these hybrids a little less tame than usual. 

 This hen eventually made a nest in the garden and laid three eggs and sat on them. 

 As she was running with immature hybrid cockerels, and had always rejected their 

 advances, these eggs were not expected to be fertile. They were, however, removed 

 from the nest and set under a domestic hen, and, as expected, all proved infertile. There 

 is little doubt that, if Mr. Johnson had not left for England at this period, this jungle 

 hen would shortly have produced fertile eggs by running with the more matured hybrid 

 cockerel in the garden, and he would have produced the unique cross of hybrid cock and 

 jungle hen. 



"When her own eggs were removed from the jungle hen's nest, they were replaced 

 by three eggs laid by the domestic hen running with the jungle cock, and these she 

 incubated. Just at the time of hatching one egg got broken in the nest ; it was an 

 addled one. This attracted thousands of ants to the nest, which not only drove off the 

 sitting hen, but killed and partly devoured the two chicks just hatched from the other 

 two eggs. It would have been a strange sight to have had a jungle hen strutting about 

 the garden with some hybrid chicks. 



"Jungle hens have never bred in captivity. Mr. Johnson's opinion is that this hen 

 would never have bred with the hybrid cock or any other cock if it had been confined 

 within wire-netting walls. 



"On the other hand, the late Mr. Young of Udabagie had two jungle hens in 

 captivity for considerably more than one year, and they were mating up with a domestic 

 cock, and Mr. Young was very hopeful of producing hybrids from this mating, when 

 his tragic death by lightning put a stop to the experiment. 



" It was just at this period that Mr. Johnson left Ceylon for England. Before he 

 left this jungle hen was enticed into the run and caught, and with the jungle cock 

 was sent to Mr. G. C. Bliss at Atagalla. The cock did not take kindly to the close con- 

 finement necessary while his big run was being put up in the new locality, and began 

 to sicken ; when turned into the big run he did not recover, so he was let out and 

 given his liberty. At night time, however, he returned to this run (in which the 

 jungle hen had been also placed) and was allowed to go in. Next morning he was 

 found dead. Thus, after a captivity of sixteen months, ended the life of a most 

 interesting bird — the progenitor of all the thirty hybrids that were produced during 

 the experiments. This jungle cock mated only with the one domestic hen, and would 

 have nothing to do with any other hen, in fact he drove them all away. Even when his 

 own particular hen had been removed for a month owing to illness, he still would have 



