1867.] Mr. W. T. BJanford's Zoological Xotes. 199 



Aves. 



12. Geographical distribution of the red and Sonnerat jungle fowls. 

 G alias ferruginous, Gm., and G. somieratii, Tern. 



I regret very much having been the means of misleading Dr. Jerdon 

 as to the distribution of the red jungle fowl. I had been told by two 

 different observers that they had seen and shot jungle fowl exactly 

 like the common barn door fowl in and near the Rajpihla hills, and a 

 third had assured me that he had seen specimens of two different 

 kinds of jungle fowl from the same neighbourhood. 



I have now been through the Rajpihla hills and the western 

 Satpooras pretty thoroughly, and I am convinced that the only jungle 

 fowl inhabiting those ranges is Gall us sonntratii. This species is also 

 found north of the Nerbudda, in the jungles east of Baroda, and 

 around Chota Oodipoor, but how far it extends to the north and north- 

 west I cannot say. It is not improbably to be found in the Aruvelli 

 range and perhaps about Mount Aboo. It occurs throughout the 

 Satpoora hills, north of Kandesh, and indeed throughout the Taptee 

 valley. Further south I have recently shot it in the jungles just east 

 of Chanda. 



Jerdon mentions its occurrence at Pachmurri, where, however, I 

 learn from Lieut. J. Forsyth that G. firru<jii>eus also occurs. lam 

 indebted to Lieut. Forsyth for the following most singular fact with 

 reference to the limits of the latter species. He tells me that it is 

 precisely conterminous in the hills south of the Nerbudda with the 

 Bara Singha, Ruccrvus Duvaitccllii, and the Sal tree, Shorea rohusta. 

 The western limits of the great belt of Sal forest which covers so large 

 a portion of Eastern India is in the Mundla district, and there bara 

 singha and red jungle fowl also occur. The sal is not found in Western 

 India ; but there is one spot in the Deinwa valley, just under 

 Pachmurri, where a patch of sal forest occurs, and there, and there 

 only, the red jungle fowl and the bara singha are met with, although 

 the nearest spot to the eastward where the three again recur is 150 

 miles off. Lieut. Forsyth adds that the two kinds of jungle fowl meet 

 on the plateau at Pachmurri and he has shot both there. When in 

 charge of the forests, he has traversed the whole of the jungle tracts 

 south of the Nerbudda, and can speak positively as to the above very 

 curious circumstance. It would be very interesting to ascertain 



