ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES 



MADE IN THE 



STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 



AND IN THE 



WESTERN STATES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



(First published in " The Ibis.") 

 (Continued from Journal No. 11, p. 29, and concluded. ) 



Gallus februgineus (G-m.). The Jungle-fowl. 



The common Jungle-fowl, the " Ayam-utan" of the Malays, is 

 exceedingly plentiful throughout the Native States ; but I never met 

 with it on the island of Singapore, and it is not common, if, indeed, 

 found at all, on Pulau Penang. 



Whether or not the Malay species, Temminck's G. bankiua, is 

 really distinct from the Indian, it is hard to say ; but if it is dis- 

 tinct, both kinds are certainly found in the Malay countries ; for, 

 while stationed in Perak, I shot, out of the same tract of jungle, 

 unmistakable specimens of G. ferrugineus, with the rich golden 

 hackles and white ear-patches, also birds of far darker, in one case 

 almost black, plumage. But the wild Jungle-fowl interbreed so 

 much with domestic roosters from the villages, that I cannot help 

 thinking these dark-coloured birds to be the results of such inter- 

 course, particularly as many of them, though very unlike the typical 

 G. ferrugineus, are not like one another, varying much in the inten- 

 sity of their colouring. 



