CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 217 
a series of harsh, shrill cries which convey their meaning to every creature within earshot. 
The challenge is accompanied, especially in the early morning, by a clapping together of 
the wings, and this appears to me to stand for a much more serious challenge than when 
the crow alone is uttered. I shall speak of this in greater detail under courtship and 
fighting. we ; 
These Junglefowl are extremely adverse to flying, and invariably try to escape on 
foot. I once saw a hen rise and partly fly, partly scale a distance of seventy-five yards 
before settling again into the scrub—the longest flight of which I have record. More 
fortunate observers say that they are strong on the wing, but all agree that they are 
flushed with difficulty. There seems to be no racial weakness of wing power, only the 
flat country which they prefer offers no incentive to exercise of this function. I have 
already spoken of their swiftness of foot. Their gait when unalarmed is, as in the other 
Junglefowl, dignified and alert. The tail is usually held quite low, except during 
challenge, courtship, and approach to battle, when it is raised as high as in any domestic 
cock. 
DAILY ROUND OF LIFE 
The food is varied, consisting usually of insects, wild seeds and grain, while 
whenever possible the birds will enter cultivated fields and by scratching do considerable 
damage to the newly-planted grain. The following list shows the contents of the crops 
of eight birds from South Ceylon, shot in March :— 
1. Male. Nine large reddish berries with purple pulp ; several scarab beetles. 
2. Male. A few green seed-pods ; 5 grass seeds; 23 termites. 
3. Male. One hundred and fifty green seed-pods; 7 small mollusks of three 
species ; several hundred termite workers. 
Male. One large tick. 
Male. Many grass seeds still on panicles; 1 termite; 2 small mollusks. 
Male. One large tick; many grass seeds; several scarab beetles. 
. Female. Twenty-five seed panicles of grass; 1 small beetle: 
. Female. In the gizzard were 6 small, smooth, reddish stones, about 6 mm. in 
diameter, and a mass of black ants. The crop contained several hundred 
termite workers; 1 brown and 2 black beetles; 1 grasshopper; 1 small wood 
roach; several brown wood lice and centipedes; a small snail; a small 
hemipterid insect, many green seed-pods, and several petals of flowers. 
PESUIMON GTN 
of 
The big ticks in the crops of Numbers 4 and 6 were alive and distended with blood, 
which they were apparently drawing from the lining wall of the crop. Termites take 
first place in the animal diet of Junglefowl, as in almost all tropical gallinaceous birds. 
It is a general belief that the young cannot be reared except on these insects, and in the 
birds which I was able to examine, it formed fully four-fifths of the food of the chicks. 
I have already mentioned the love which Junglefowl have for the berries of the 
nilloo or cone-head plants, a species of Strobclanthes. Whenever this fruits among the 
undergrowth of the hill forests it tempts the birds from far and near, and they flock 
thither, coming even from the lowlands at the foot of the hills. This maturing of the 
seed in quantity takes place at very irregular occasions, sometimes it is said, at intervals 
VOL. I FF 
