CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 221 
hand, in September are far from unknown. In the Batticaloa district it is said that eggs 
are found every month except in November, December and January. In the province of 
Noa, April, May and June are given as the most favoured months; in the northern 
parts of the island nests are found from February to August more often than at other 
times. 
The Ceylon’ Junglefowl are very pugnacious. The clapping of the wings and the 
crowing are the preliminaries to battle, although much of this demonstration may be 
considered in the nature of bluff or of warning. One correspondent, Mr. Thomas, writes 
me that he considers the clapping as answering the purpose of a long stretch immediately 
after awakening, and to support this theory, makes the comment that it is seldom or 
never heard except before the first crow or challenge uttered in the early morning. 
Referring to a Junglefowl cock which he kept for some time in captivity and from which 
he bred a number of hybrid birds, he notes that if unexcited the cock would never clap 
his wings after the first call. On hearing another cock, however, he would do so once 
or twice, “ probably in the nature of a stretch to feel if he was in fighting trim.” I must 
take exception to this view, owing to the facility with which cocks may be called up by 
imitating the clapping of the wings, even when an attempted imitation of the crow is 
not added. Indeed, by use of the latter challenge alone, it is a much more difficult 
matter to entice the challenging cock within shooting distance. I shall give more in 
regard to this aspect later. | 
It is true that the clapping is usually confined to the first few crows. Whether 
this had its origin in the desire to stretch the wings in preparation for a flight to the 
ground from the elevated roost, we shall probably never know. To-day, at least, it is 
an important and significant part both of the audible challenge and defiance, and actually 
more potent than the crow itself to precipitate an encounter. 
The cocks inhabiting the same general region, if mated, undoubtedly have a more 
or less definite territory over which they hold sway, and into which the advance of a 
strange cock is considered an intrusion to be disputed with all their powers of offence, 
and if necessary with their life. Cocks settled on adjacent beats or preserves do not 
advance to the attack at one another's early morning challenge, whether of clapping, 
crowing, or both together. Each, however, reacts at the very first sound, and a few 
seconds after the first bird awakens and challenges, every cock within hearing has thrown 
off his slumber and returns the defiance with all the force of his lusty lungs. A roving, 
unmated cock is detected at once, and he must either make his way silently across 
country, or be distinctly looking for trouble if he challenge anywhere in the vicinity of a 
settled cock. 
The first one or several calls are given from the roost itself. The bird then 
usually descends to a low branch, and for a variable period of time devotes itself to 
crowing. In this situation the observations of several writers agree perfectly with 
my own. The bird walks or struts back and forth along the branch, lowering and 
raising his head. When crowing, the head and neck are stretched far upward. Where 
the bird has no room for lateral movement it nervously raises first one, then the 
other foot, during the intervals of crowing. It seems usually to have some particular 
rival within hearing, for whose challenge it listens. As soon as it has finished a 
crow, it steps or moves about, but the instant the clap or the crow of the other bird 
