220 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
carnivores, and especially the mongoose. I have more than once encountered one of 
these latter animals stalking, as was I, a Junglefowl busy with its scratching. A 
reliable observer told me that once when lying in wait for deer he had seen a mongoose 
kill a hen Junglefowl and then make a systematic search for all her brood, four or five 
in number, of about two weeks’ old chicks. 
The hearing and the-sight of these birds is amazingly acute. They will become 
suspicious at the least unusual rustle of an approaching footstep, while leaves and twigs 
may be falling in all directions and the wind making sudden rustlings and noises, to 
which they pay not the slightest attention. While the wild fowl in early morning come 
occasionally out into the roads and trails, or venture into grassy glades, yet it is always 
with an eye to cover. I have approached a crowing bird without attempting to conceal 
the sound of my footsteps and had it retreat slowly before me for several hundred feet, 
crowing from time to time as it went. In such a case one need never expect even the 
slightest glimpse of the bird, as it cunningly keeps under cover or dodges behind some 
intervening mound or grassy hillock. Of their pietc cues for escape by fleetness of foot 
rather than by flight I have already spoken. 
Junglefowl learn by experience to distinguish between degrees of danger. In a 
place where one could be sure of finding a half-dozen birds along a mile or two of jungle 
road in early morning, if I walked on foot the birds would dive into cover as soon as 
ever they caught sight of me, even when still a hundred yards away. But going over 
the same route in a bullock cart, and sitting under the cover alongside of the driver, the 
birds would reluctantly leave off their feeding and walk into the undergrowth only when 
we had approached within thirty or forty yards. They had evidently had occasion to 
fear neither the slow-moving carts nor the bullocks nor drivers. 
In examining the specimens of Junglefowl which I shot day after day there came to 
my notice evidence of a factor in the lives of these birds of which we know but little. 
This was the mass of ticks which covered much of the combs of the birds. Parasites 
such as these probably always cause great discomfort, and doubtless, in many cases, bring 
death to a larger number of wild creatures than we realize. It is only by the close 
examination of specimens as soon as shot that we can learn anything definite concerning 
such phenomena as this, which may be of the utmost importance in limiting distribution, 
both local and general, and in affecting the vitality of the individuals. In affected cocks, 
the posterior and inferior borders of the comb were usually hidden by a mass of these 
parasites. In one bird I took the trouble to count the ticks on one side, and found two 
hundred and sixty-three, of all sizes and ages. When the ticks were removed by a wash 
of formaline, this part of the comb was seen to be raw, and in one case a secondary 
bacterial infection seemed to have set in. 
HOME LIFE 
The breeding season of this species has the tropical character of elastic limits, and 
eggs seem to be laid during almost every month in the year. I doubt if the explanation 
of two broods serves to account for this. A more reasonable interpretation might be the 
destroying of many nests by enemies and the consequent delay in the nesting. February 
to May seems to be the more usual period, but eggs in November and, on the other 
