CEYLON JUNGLEFOWL 225 
away, but as a whole these birds may be considered a negligible quantity in their 
power to injure man’s cultivations. 
The Junglefowl, from the variety of its food, has caused some sportsmen to 
be enthusiastic over the delicacy of its flesh, while others describe it as tough, tasteless, 
and scarcely edible. It seems, however, to be hardly worth shooting for the table 
when doves can be procured. At any rate, that was my experience in south Ceylon, 
and I have heard from many Europeans in various parts of the island that only 
the natives find them worth eating. This fact, together with the religious aversion 
of the Buddhists to taking life, are points in favour of the continued existence 
of the Junglefowl for many years to come. While their feathers are sometimes 
used in tying fishing flies, and occasionally exported for millinery purposes, these 
uses do not threaten their extinction. 
In the recent game laws, the Junglefowl does not seem to be included in the 
term ‘‘game,’ which embraces four species of deer, besides ‘‘ peafowl, grey partridge, 
painted partridge and Ceylon spur-fowl.” We find them mentioned, however, in a 
clause which reads: “Shooting at night and netting game or Junglefowl, unless 
trespassing upon cultivated land, is prohibited under a penalty of one hundred 
rupees, or three months, or both.” So we find the birds totally unprotected by 
law, and yet holding their own in most places. 
The natives of Ceylon have many ways of trapping Junglefowl, both by snares 
and by spring-traps. The most effective method in use in the hill jungles is the 
construction of a miniature fence of small sticks, nine or ten inches high and fifteen 
or twenty yards long. Several gaps are left near the centre, six or eight inches 
wide. For several days food is scattered about on both sides of the fence and 
around the gaps. Then, when the birds become accustomed to feeding regularly 
hair nooses, attached by a catch to a bent spring, are cae over the gaps, and 
several birds are certain to be caught. 
Another native method of trapping is by the use of a net, about six feet high 
and twenty yards long, which is stretched in a semicircle across a gully. When it 
is in position, a score or more Singhalese form a line and work down toward the 
gully through the jungle, noisily driving all the terrestrial birds and animals ahead 
of them. In this way many species of small mammals and birds, including Junglefowl, 
are entangled and captured. 
The most widespread way of shooting Junglefowl, practised both by Europeans, 
Singhalese and Tamils, is to attract them by imitating the sound of the clapping 
of the wings which often precedes the vocal challenge. When the sportsman has 
made his way into a good position as close as possible to several crowing birds 
without having aroused their suspicions, he crouches low on the ground and begins 
to call. If a native, the hollow sound of the clapping wing, wop! woh! wop! wop! 
is made by striking the thigh with the hollowed hand. Europeans produce an 
imitation of equal excellence by making a pad of a pocket handkerchief, holding it 
in one hand, and striking it with the palm of the other, both hands being hollowed. 
It is only when the cock thinks its preserve is being encroached upon, or if a 
wandering, unmated bird be near, that it will heed the challenge. But when once 
aroused, its anger increases as it approaches, and it is apt to burst into sight without 
VOL, II GG 
