GREY JUNGLEFOWL 243 



poaching. The Kurbars use dead-falls of sorts, and also drive stakes about fifteen 

 inches high into the ground close together to form a circle about two feet in diameter, 

 in which grain is placed, and the birds learn to feed through two openings which are 

 left open for the purpose. After a while, a very ingenious arrangement made of bamboo, 

 on the principle of a scissor trap, is placed at the opening, into which the bird gets its 

 head and is killed. The Pardees approach the feeding birds under cover of a bull, and a 

 line of nooses having been set, they mill around until the birds are close to the line. 

 They then suddenly leap out and scare the birds, and in their rush to escape many are 

 caught by the neck or leg. Any one who has tried to get even within gunshot of such 

 birds will realize the skill which these natives must possess to successfully carry out this 

 method of attack. 



CAPTIVITY 



The Grey Junglefowl was first bred in Europe in 1862, when thirteen hybrids with 

 the red species were reared in the London Zoo. Since then it has been bred many 

 times in various public and private aviaries, both pure and as crosses. Of twelve birds 

 of which records were kept in the London Zoo, one notable individual lived twelve years 

 and four months, the average length of life of the others being two years and a half. 

 The period of incubation lasts from eighteen to nineteen days. A pair of these birds 

 bred successfully in the aviary of F. E. Blaauw in Holland. The hen laid three 

 successive times, in clutches of four eggs each, and from these ten birds, five cocks and 

 five hens, were reared. The first two layings were taken away and set under bantam 

 hens, while the last lot of four was left to the mother, who sat faithfully and hatched 

 them all. The richly-coloured chicks thrived on ants' eggs, and assumed their adult 

 plumage in the first autumn. 



When the eggs of wild Junglefowl are brought in and hatched under a domestic 

 hen, the chicks remain contentedly with the mother until they are able to fly, when they 

 roost at night by themselves on some bush or low tree. When a few months old they 

 invariably retreat to the jungle, and do not return. Grey Junglefowl seldom become 

 tame in captivity, certainly not more so than the average pheasant. While there is no 

 doubt that the red species is the direct ancestor of all of our poultry, the rather close 

 relation of the grey bird is shown in the facility with which it crosses with the 

 descendants of its generic relative. In the native villages of Kanara and elsewhere, it is 

 not a rare sight to see hybrids which possess more or less perfectly the bright sealing- 

 wax hackles of one parent, while they have inherited sufficient domestic instincts to 

 induce them to remain with the other inmates of the compound. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — The feathering of the head is confined to a narrow line of reddish, 

 rather recurved feathers between the comb and eye, and a small rounded tuft of silvery- 

 white feathers covering the ear. The face, chin, and throat appear naked, but are evenly 

 but thinly covered with a scanty growth of filo-plumes, each a simple hair-like shaft, or 

 tipped with several rudimentary barbs. Immediately back of the comb the feathers take 

 on the character of the hackles as a whole. The smallest of these show a small spot, flat 



