THE MAHADEO HILLS 105 



eact feather tipped as with a drop of yellow sealing-wax, 

 are mucti valued for fly-dressing. Jungle-fowl shooting 

 with spaniels in these hills is capital fun. The cover they 

 frequent is very thick, and they take a good hustling 

 before they fly up and perch on the trees. When you 

 approach they generally _fly ofi, and are very clever at 

 putting a thick cover between themselves and the gun, 

 making the shooting by no means so easy as it looks, so 

 that a couple of brace are a good bag for a morning's sport. 

 I never saw reason to suppose that the two species inter- 

 bred, nor that either of them crosses with the domestic 

 fowl of these hills. 



I have already remarked on the singularity of thus 

 finding a patch of the forest pecuHar to Eastern India, 

 together with its most characteristic mammals and birds, 

 isolated among the vegetation and fauna of the west, at 

 a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles from 

 the nearest point of the main forest to which they 

 belong. 



Two species of spur-fowl are pretty common on the 

 hills. The one is the common little red bird,^ which, 

 but for its size, might easily be mistaken for the red 

 jungle-fowl, being very like a small bantam cock. The 

 other species is, I think, the same as the painted spur- 

 fowl,^ an exceedingly handsome bird, with a long double 

 spur on each leg. The latter species is generally found on 

 the edges of the ravines, down which it drops, when flushed, 

 like a stone, and can seldom be found again. The red 

 bird I found chiefly on the little broken hiUs that surround 

 the plateau, and in the same places as the jungle-fowl; 

 and very pretty sport it gives with spaniels. 



The common chikara gazelle of the plains inhabits the 

 undtdating part of the plateau ; and the little four-horned 

 antelope, already referred to, is not uncommon in the 

 thicker parts. The black antelope is quite unknown, 

 though on the similar plateau of Toran Mai, in the western 

 Satpiiras, it is said to be common. Hares are very nu- 

 merous. The Korkiis have a curious way of killing them 

 at night. I discovered it by observing a strange wiU-o'- 

 ^ Galloperdix spadiceus. ^ G. lumuhsus, Jerdon. 



