30 



Fancy Pheasants. 



differs in some important points. Thus the breast and 

 underparts are covered -with pointed orarge-red glossy 

 feathers — short hackles, in fact; the secondaries are 

 black, not cinnamon ; the throat and the tips of the 

 saddle hackles are glossy violet, and the tail is glossed 

 with purple, not green. Moreover, the comb has a 

 yellow patch in the middle, -and the legs are yellow. 

 In this last point the Ceylonese bird, of course, resem- 

 bles many tame ones ; but none of these ever display 

 his peculiar breast-featl^eiing, and the red Indian bird, 

 when domesticated, develops yellow legs before altering 

 in any other point of colour. 



The hen is more different from that of the continental 

 bird, having a feathered face and no wattles, very heavy 

 black bariing on the wings, and the underparts mottled 

 black, buff, and white. The tail is also mottled with 

 buff. 



The most remarkable point about the Ceylonese 

 Jungle-cock is, however, its voice ; the cock's crow con- 

 sists of two syllables only, commonly rendered as 

 "George Joyce," though some prefer "John" to 

 " George." The cocks often thrash domestic birds and 

 pair with their hens, but there is no evidence as yet 

 that the hybrids are fertile. I have never seen this bird 

 alive, though the London Zoological Society have pos- 

 sessed it ; but a fine pair are shown alongside the Indian 

 Red Jungle-fowl at the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington. It is a curious fact that some 

 authors give the colouring of the Ceylonese cock as 

 behmging to the Rumpless breed. 



The Geey or Sonneeat's Jungle-fowl. 

 (Gallus sonnerati.) 



Although very different from the Red Indian and 

 Ceylonese Jungle-fowls, this bird lives between them, in- 

 habiting southern and western India, where the red bird 

 does not occur, though they meet in central India. The 

 general colour of the cock is grey, the feathers, which 

 are pointed, being black laced with grey, and liaving 

 white shafts. The tail and' quills are black, the former 

 glossed with purplish green. The hackles of the neck, 

 the feathers of the flat of the wing, and some of the 

 saddle hackles, which are comparatively short, are tipiped 

 with a glossy wax-like substance, formed by the coales- 

 cence of the barbs at the end of the feather. These 

 peculiar glossy tips are orange on the wing and saddle, 

 and goMeii yellow on' the hackle, giving this a very 

 beautiful and unique appearance. As with the Red 

 Jungle-fowl., the hackles and sickles are cast after the 

 breeding season, and the former replaced by short dark 

 feathers. The comb and wattles are red, as is the face ; 

 the legs are fleshy yellow. The hen is partridge-colour 

 above, and white laced with black below, the lacing 

 getting finer on the belly. She has a small comb and a 

 bare face, but no wattles. 



This bird is more shy in the wild state than the Red 

 Jungle-fowl, and less hardy in captivity. The birds of 

 this species which the Zoological Gardens had at liberty 

 with ftie red species did not stand the winter so well 

 there ; but the species has been ke|)t successfully in 

 England, and crossed with domestic fowls, the hybrids 

 sometimes, at all events, proving fertile. But the 

 beautiful hacldes are generally lost in the first cross, so 

 that there is not much point in making it. A wild 

 hybrid between the two species was shot in India by 

 the late Dr. Jerdon, but normally they do not intermix — 

 the Red Jungle-fowl even inhabiting an isolated wood of 

 sdl-trees' right in the other's territory. Roughly 

 speaking, the red bird is only found where this tree 

 (Shorea rohusta) grows, and ' he probably keeps his 

 teiTitory to himself, being a very hard fighter. He has 

 been seen to beat a cook Kaleege in a fair fight in the 

 open, and has regular fighting places in his native jungles; 

 whereas the grey bird would seem to be of a less fierce 

 disposition — at any rate, several cocks can be kept to- 

 gether, even in the presence of hens. 



'J'he crow of the Grey Jungle-fowl is said to be quite 



different from that of the Red. I have never heard it, 

 though I have seen a good many cocks alive. I have, 

 however, often heard them utter a note like " koorchy, 

 hoorchy," when alarmed by a too near approach to their 

 cage — a noise quite unlike that made by any tame 

 fowl. 



The hackles of this species are in much demand for 

 the manufacture of salmon-flies, and I am sorry to say a 

 good many birds are killed in consequence. Therefore, 

 if anyone cultivates these birds he will find that, in addi- 

 tion to their beauty, they will produce a marketable 

 article in their moulted finery ; and if this can he put on 

 the market in competition with the spoils of shot speci- 

 mens, as has been done with the plumes of the Ostrich, 

 the Grey Jungle-fowl will be relieved from a great deal 

 of unnecessary persecution. So that from more than one 

 point of view this bird is well worth taking into domes- 

 tication, although less suited for it than its better- 

 known relative. Owing to the striking appearance of 

 this bird, it is more of ten captured and kept tlian the 

 Red Jungle-fowl, and so more easily procured. 



The Geeen oe Javan Jungle-fowl. 

 (Gallus varius.) 



The islands of Java, Lombock, and Flores, in the East 

 Indies, are the habitat of this beautiful species, which is 

 the most distinct of all. The cock's comb is plain-edged, 

 not serrated as in the other species ; his face is very 

 naked, and instead of wattles he has a dewlap, which is 

 expansible, something like a Turkey's. Moreover, his 

 ruff does not consist of hackles, but of broad rounded 

 scale-like feathers, and a similar feathering occupies the 

 upper part of the back. This plumage is metallic purple 

 and golden green ; the rest of the feathering is black 

 glossed with green except on the under surface, and set 

 off by a patch of orange on the flat of the wing, and a 

 gold lacing to the saddle-hackles. 



The comb is pale greenish blue at the base, shading 

 into purplish pink along the ed^e ; in the dewlap these 

 colours are reversed, and there is a p^tch of yellow at 

 its junction with the throat. This is scarcely visible 

 when the dewlap is contracted, but is conspicuous when 

 it is fully expanded, when also the face, which is flesh- 

 coloured whgU the dewlap is drawn up^ blushes to a 

 bright red. The eyes are grey, and the legs flesh- 

 coloured. 



The hen has neither comb nor wattles ; her plumage 

 is barred buff and black above, the latter predominat- 

 ing, and plain buff below ; altogether she is rather like 

 the hens of the ruffed Pheasants, to which her mate 

 also approximates in the form of his ruff- feathers. 



This is not at all a common bird in captivity; in six 

 years in India I have only seen three cocks, all of which 

 were obtained by Mr. Rutledge, who tells me he has 

 never succeeded in getting the hen. In Europe I 

 have never seen it, but it has been exhibited in the 

 London Zoological Gardens. A bird we have at the 

 Calcutta Zoological Gardens at first kept his dewlap 

 contracted, but could always be made to let it down 

 and to blush by showing hiin a looking-glass. Latterly, 

 as the bird got into better condition, his dewlap was 

 constantly expanded, and the face j)ermanently red. 

 He courted a black Minoica hen, slanting himself over 

 like some Pheasants, but she resented' his approaches, 

 whereupon he flew at her, and had they not been 

 separated by netting a fight would doubtless have 

 ensued. It looked as if he claimed a relationship which 

 she was not disposed to admit, which is rather curious, 

 for certainly, as far as colour and size went, she was 

 more different from a Green Jungle-fowl hen than he 

 fnm some varieties of the common fowl. I never heard 

 this bird or any other of his species crow ; but he often 

 made a noise like that made by the common hen when 

 looking for a place to lay in. The crow is said to be in 

 two syllables — " co-crik — rather like half an ordinary 

 cock's crow. 



This Jungle-fowl is not only a very beautiful aji4 



