GREY JUNGLEFOWL 245 



adjoining feathers. Flight-feathers brownish-black, the primaries faintly edged with 

 pale grey, and the secondaries glossed with greenish. 



Under-parts like the back, but with much more greyish-white on the fringes and 

 shaft-stripes. Indeed, posteriorly, the black becomes restricted to two broad longi- 

 tudinal bands. A patch of feathers on the sides of the belly and the flanks shows a 

 tendency to form another zone of specialization, but here we find only an abundance of 

 the orange-red pigment, with little or no cornification of the vane. 



Comb, wattles and bare skin of head, chin, and throat red, very intense at the 

 season of courtship, and often extending far down the neck under the clothing of hackles. 

 Upper mandible dark-brown or black, paler at the tip ; lower mandible yellowish horn. 

 Irides varying from clear red, through reddish-orange to yellow. When in full colour 

 the legs and feet are salmon red, and the claws black. After death and at other than 

 the breeding season, a yellowish hue predominates. 



Length, 700 to 800 mm. ; culmen from nostril, 16 ; wing^ 240 ; tail, 380 ; tarsus, 77 ; 

 middle toe and claw, 64. Spur long, slender distally and much curved, 30 mm. in 

 length. Weight i lb. 9 ozs. to 2 lbs. 9-5 ozs. 



VARIATION AND ANNUAL MOULTS 



In examining a large series of skins, some from areas of dense, humid jungle, and 

 others from semi-arid regions, I can detect no correlated difference in colour. I have 

 already spoken, however, of the considerable variation in individual cocks, regardless of 

 age or locality. This is most pronounced in the hackles, in which the terminal enamelled 

 spot may be pure white or rich yellow ochre. Then, too, in cocks of equal age, the 

 body plumage may sometimes lack the iridescent gloss, while the amount of white varies 

 within wide limits. The absence of gloss and excess of white are also, however, marks 

 of immaturity. 



In June or July, when the duties of the breeding season are quite over, the hackles 

 begin to be dropped. This moult of the hackles is of great interest as being an eclipse 

 moult of short duration. From the forehead back to the lower neck, and around, almost 

 meeting on the ventral part of the neck, the shed hackles are at once replaced with black 

 feathers. Those on the head have white, hair-like shaft-stripes, while the larger ones 

 are faintly glossed with purple. There is absolutely no trace of the specialised waxy 

 spots, and the whole aspect of the bird is altered. These black feathers are retained 

 until the regular annual moult sets in, some three months later, when they, together 

 with the entire body and wing plumage, are shed, and replaced with resplendent new 

 feathers. The early shedding of the long, central tail-feathers is irregular. They are 

 often broken off at this season after the wear and tear of the period of battle and of 

 breeding, so that they do not project beyond the other shorter tail-feathers. In ten 

 specimens in eclipse plumage, six had the feathers thus broken, and hence apparently 

 moulted ; in two others they were present and full length, although much worn, the 

 eclipse hackle plumage in this case already showing signs of being shed. In two other 

 birds the central tail-feathers were shed ; but so were one or two of the other rectrices 

 adventitiously from one side, showing that the regular rectrice moult, from outside in, 

 had not yet begun. Thus there seems no ground for belief in the widely-repeated 



