GREY JUNGLEFOWL 237 
make out. When put.up by an enemy they go off with a loud, frightened kakakakakak ! 
with the @ as in the word “that.” This outburst is often continued until they alight 
in a distant part of the jungle. 
| There is nothing of especial interest about the gait of these birds, which differs in 
no respect from that of other Junglefowl. The tail is carried low, except when the bird 
is courting, or approaching a rival. When it runs at full speed the tail fairly trails 
and the head is also lowered until in a straight line with the body. When listening 
for danger, the bird stands so erect that the line of its neck and back is almost vertical, 
the longer tail-feathers pressing against the ground. The flight is rapid and strong. 
When thoroughly alarmed by the sudden appearance of a sportsman, the birds will 
often run with head and tail held low, dodging about any convenient tufts of vegetation, 
until at some distance, when they rise with rapidly beating wings and fly for several 
hundred yards before seeking safety in some dense bit of jungle. 
DAILY ROUND OF LIFE 
Grey Junglefowl come into the open, as upon roads, or at the edge of fields, or in 
open patches in the jungle itself in early morning, retiring to cover as the heat increases. 
During mid-day they remain quietly on the ground or on low branches, seeking food 
rather casually, preening their plumage, or indulging in the luxury of dust baths. 
Toward evening they again resume activity, coming again into the open, or descending 
to some favourite stream to drink. In cloudy weather, however, they move about in 
the open throughout the day. 
The food of the Grey Junglefowl is varied in character, consisting in general of 
various seeds and grain, small fruits and berries, with occasionally leaves and flower 
petals, while insects of almost any order, but especially termites, are acceptable. 
Sometimes their crops will be crammed with nothing but grass seeds, or again millet 
from the fields of the natives, or after land has been burnt over, they enjoy the tender, 
juicy shoots of the newly-sprouted grass. 
They roost in trees, and when deer-hunting at daylight sportsmen have often 
flushed them from their perches. They usually select some bent bamboo stalk, or again 
frequent a clump of dense evergreens, perching high up and always in thick jungle. 
One correspondent writes me that they always perch singly, even although there may 
be several in the same tree or in neighbouring ones. 
It is the impression of some observers that the Grey Junglefowl are less courageous 
than the red species. ‘They are so extremely wary,” to quote Davidson, ‘“‘ where birds 
and animals of prey are concerned, and wander such short distances from the edges of 
cover, that I think very few of them fall victims to any enemy but man. There are 
plenty of the Bonelli eagles and some hawk-eagles too in the Nilgiris, but I do not 
think that these ever succeed in capturing Grey, as they do elsewhere red, Junglefow] ; 
at any rate, I have never once seen the feathers of sonnevati strewed about, as I have 
those of ferrugineus in Burma.” It is probable that this is an error, and I see no 
reason to think that they enjoy any greater immunity from attack than any other species 
of bird living under corresponding conditions. In fact the proclivity of red junglefowl 
to live in the vicinity of native villages, and their consequent familiarity with mankind, 
