CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 229 



VARIATION AND MOULT 



In Ceylon one hears a great deal about the difference in the species of Junglefowl 

 which inhabits the hills and mountains of the interior, or of variations in birds 

 from the several provinces. The following quotation from Price will show what I 

 mean by this. " It may interest you to learn that there is, or was until lately, a white 

 jungle fowl hen to be seen in company with other ordinary jungle fowl at a place on the 

 Anuradhapura-Puttalam road, about fourteen miles from Anuradhapura. When I saw 

 it first I mistook it for a paddy bird, and it would have escaped identification as a 

 jungle fowl if it had not been in the company of another pair. I got quite close to it 

 and saw that it was undoubtedly a jungle hen, almost pure white, except for a few grey 

 feathers on the neck and head. Mr. Vigors, the Government Agent, saw the same bird 

 shortly afterwards at the same place. At the time I saw this bird I was not aware that 

 such a variation in colour was so uncommon, or I might have made an exception to my 

 general principle of sparing curiosities. Both Mr. Vigors and I thought it would be 

 better to leave it where it was, to see if it would have any effect on the colour of the 

 other birds about that locality. Down in the south of Sabaragamuwa and in Humban- 

 tota there is an inclination for the birds to be brown, especially the hens, which are very 

 dark, in many cases with black spots on tail and wings. The tendency in the open 

 scrub country of the Northern Province and in Tamankaduwa, in the North-Central 

 Province, is for the birds to be red in colour ; the cocks, of course, always have a lot of 

 red about them, but it is more brilliant and lighter up north, and exactly to the same 

 extent is the hen light in colour. I suppose it is the same influence which makes the 

 wandaroo monkey almost black down south, while he is almost white up north." 



I lost no opportunity of obtaining direct and first-hand evidence of this, and came 

 to the final conclusion that if any such distinction actually exists, only series of several 

 hundred birds with exact data of age, locality and season could prove it. I was told 

 that the voice of coastal birds differed from those of the interior, which I proved beyond 

 doubt to be an error. The plumage of the low country birds was said to be lighter and 

 paler, and the birds somewhat larger, with a greater development of comb and wattles. 

 The series which I was able to collect in the coast districts of southern Ceylon ran the 

 full gamut of these variations, and the same is true of the birds which I obtained from 

 high levels. I believe that all altitudinal or regional variation is lost in the very 

 considerable individual variation. 



The regular annual moult takes place usually in September and October. 



Adult Female. — Crown dark brown, nape rufescent, the feathers sometimes with 

 distinct black margins. Neck and mantle dark orange or rufescent brown, sometimes 

 with indistinct black mottling, or again, with the black arranged in two wide, irregular, 

 concentric bands. These feathers are sometimes fringed with quite bright golden-brown. 

 Remainder of upper parts and wing-coverts finely mottled reddish brown and black, 

 usually with a hair-like, whitish shaft-streak. These streaks are always absent from the 

 lower back and rump, which are of a deeper rufous tone. Primaries dark brown with a 

 series of pale buff spots on the outer web ; secondaries and their coverts black with 

 mottled buff cross-bars on the outer webs, the black areas often with an irregular basal 



