RED JUNGLEFOWL 197 
JUNGLEFOWL AS GAME-BIRDS 
The ornithologist is indeed rash who ventures to tell in his own words the delight 
which the sportsman takes in his pursuit of game. Let him, unhampered by scientific 
fetters, relate what pleasure the wild Red Junglefowl can give to the huntsman, whether 
he pits his own woodcraft and ability singly against these wary birds or fills his gamebag 
more easily by the assistance of dogs or a line of native beaters. 
“When detached clumps of jungle or small hills occur in a jungly district where 
these fowls abound, very pretty shooting can be had by driving them by means of dogs 
and beaters; and in travelling through a forest country, many will always be found 
near the roads, to which they resort to pick up grain from the droppings of cattle, etc. ; 
dogs will often put them up, when they at once fly on to the nearest trees. Young 
birds, if kept for a few days, are very excellent eating, having a considerable game 
flavour.’—(Beavan). 
‘Sometimes when thus beating for Junglefowl you meet with odd surprises. It 
was in April 1853, in the good old days of palki dak, from Meerut to Mussooree. Three 
nights we used to make of it when ladies were of the party, and the close of the second 
night brought us to the Kheree Dak Bungalow, in broken jungly ground just south 
of the Siwaliks. After breakfast I went out to look for Junglefowl, luckily with a rifle 
(a heavy 2 oz. band spherical ball) in case of seeing cheetul. We beat a lot of low 
jungle grass and scattered bushes, and I had got a partridge and a Junglehen, when I 
turned into a very likely-looking nalla, about eighty feet deep, with sloping, well-grassed 
sides, and at the bottom a narrow, perpendicular-sided water channel about four feet 
deep and three feet wide, cut through the boulder clay. In this channel I walked, with 
one or two men along the slopes on either side, and one or two above, all a little behind 
me. Suddenly there was a shout on my left, and instantly a tremendous grunting. As I 
seized my rifle from the shikari behind me, four black heads showed through the grass 
immediately above me. I could not get out of the wretched water-course, which was 
nearly up to my armpits, and without one second’s hesitation one of the bears (the old 
female as it proved) came down upon me like a thunderbolt. I got my first barrel off 
when she was about ten yards from me; the second let itself off as her chest struck the 
muzzle, and then I was knocked over, half-stunned and nearly crushed to death. I 
don’t know exactly how it all happened, but I found myself on my face, hardly able to 
breathe; my head, arms, and body pinned down by the massive, motionless (lucky for 
me) corpse of lady Bruin. Seeing that the bear was quite dead, my shikari and a good 
pahari bearer I had soon pulled her off and released me, a mass of blood, a good deal 
cut and bruised, but not really hurt; my first bullet had gone straight through her from 
stem to stern (2 oz. hardened bullet and six drams of powder), the other had gone right 
through the heart and come out behind the ribs on the left side. 
“Tt will be well for griffs (as I then was) to bear in mind that, in the sub- 
Himalayan ranges, at any rate, where Junglefowl are common, there bears and tigers are 
not unlikely to be met with, and that they should never beat for Junglefowl in such 
situations on foot without a rifle in trustworthy hands behind them, and never allow 
themselves to be caught in such a trap as that in which I had stupidly placed myself. 
‘‘In the autumn, after the millet-fields have ripened, they grow very fat on this 
