GREY JUNGLEFOWL 



Gallus somierati Temminck 



Names. — Specific : sonnerati, after M. Sonnerat who first described the cock and hen. English : Grey or 

 Sonnerat's Junglefowl. French : Coq Sonnerat. German : Sonnerat-huhn. Native : Komri, Mt. Abu ; Jungli 

 Murghi (Hindustani) Central India ; Ran-kobada [male], Ran-kobadi [female] (Mahrati) Sahyadri Range ; Parda 

 Komri (Gondhi) Chanda District ; Kombadi, Deccan ; Adanikode (Telegu) ; Katu-koli (Tamil) ; Koli, Kad-koli 

 (Canarese), Mysore. 



Brief Description.— Male : Hackles on neck and mantle fringed with grey, with black centres along 

 which are several yellow or whitish spots like sealing-wax ; median and greater wing-coverts very similar ; back, 

 lesser coverts and under parts brown or black, with a greater or less amount of grey, forming a fringe and central 

 stripe ; rump and tail-coverts purplish, tail glossy green. Female : Upper mantle rusty, with broad, buffy-white 

 shaft-stripe ; upper parts brown, mottled with black, the light shaft-stripe disappearing posteriorly ; under parts 

 predominantly white, fringed and sparsely mottled with black. 



Range. — Western, Central and Southern India. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



This Junglefowl is generally distributed in Southern India. Its northern boundary 

 may roughly be defined thus : the valley of the Godavari from its mouth on the eastern 

 coast up to the northern tributary, the Indravati. After continuing some distance up 

 the valley of this latter river, the northern line of distribution leads irregularly north- 

 westward through Bhandara, Seoni and Pachmarhi to the westward-flowing Nerbudda. 

 About one hundred and twenty-five miles from the Arabian Sea, the birds cross the 

 river and extend in a narrow finger northwards through the Vindhya and the Mahikanta 

 Mountains to Mt. Abu, and thence are found in few and fewer numbers some 

 distance farther north among the Aravalli Hills^ the northernmost record being about 

 26° N. Lat. 



Southward its haunts are bounded only by the sea, the fifty miles of water between 

 the mainland and Ceylon forming a barrier which divides two distinct species of 

 Junglefowl. Like the other birds of its genus, the Grey Junglefowl is not a lover 

 of flat, open, cultivated tracts. Hence within the limits of Southern India there are 

 large areas from which the bird is wholly absent. In jungle, or in hilly, broken 

 country they are very widely distributed, with centres of abundance in the larger ranges, 

 such as the Western Ghats, the Satpuras, the Nilgiris, Puhneys, Shervaroys and 

 Anamalais. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



The home range of the Grey Junglefowl seems to be rather limited, and in the 

 few cases reported to me of an individual bird being observed for any length of time, 

 the wanderings have been very circumscribed. Davidson writes: "They are very 

 punctual in their appearance at particular feeding-grounds, and when one or more are 



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