2l8 THE RED JUNGLE-FOWL. 



tory States. It occurs also immediately below Pachmarhi, but 

 the exact line of definition of this species and the Grey Jungle- 

 Fowl between Pachmarhi and the Amarkantak range is un- 

 certain, as I have as yet been unable to learn what species, 

 if any, occurs in the hills about Seoni, Kooraiia, Deogarh and 

 Chhindwara. 



Captain Temple and Mr. Ellison, the Deputy Commissioners 

 of Seoni and Chhindwara, are of opinion that neither species 

 occurs in their districts. 



As bearing on the distribution of this species in the Central 

 Provinces,* I may note that Forsyth, the well-known sportsman, 

 stated that its range was " precisely conterminous in the hills 

 south of the Nerbudda with that of the Swamp Deer (Rucervus 

 duvaiiceli), and the sal-tree (Shorea robusta)-\. The western 

 limits of the great belt of sal forests which covers so large a 

 portion of Eastern India is in the Mandla District, and there 

 the Swamp Deer 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 Pachmarhi, where a patch of sal forest 

 occurs, and there, and there only, the Red Jungle-Fowl and the 

 Swamp Deer are met with, although the nearest spot to the 

 eastward where the three again recur is 150 miles distant." 

 Forsyth added that the two kinds of Jungle-Fowl met on the 

 plateau at Pachmarhi and that he had shot both there. 



It is unknown in Kathiawar, Cutch, Sind, Rajputana, and the 

 Punjab except in the immediate neighbourhood of the Hima- 

 layas and the Siwaliks, and equally so, except in similar 

 situations, in the greater portions of the level fully cultivated 



* As further illustrating this much-disputed question, I may quote what my friend 

 Mr. R. Thompson, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Central Provinces, writes : — 



" The Red Jungle-Fowl is found nowhere in the Chanda District proper as far as 

 my personal observations have extended, nor have I heard of its existence from native 

 shikaris and others. It is found in the Godavari Valley as low down as the hills 

 north of Rajmandhry, but not above Dumagudium, which is now just beyond the 

 limits of the Central Provinces and within the Madras Presidency. In Central 

 Bastar, between i8° and 19 N. Lat., it was common on the Baila Dila Plateau. 

 I met with it in the valley of the Savery river which drains a part of Jeypore, and 

 it may probably extend westwards to as far as the Indravati river, but I have 

 no certainty as to this last point. Dr. Jerdon describes its existence in the valley of 

 the Indravati, where I have certainly not met with it, and must therefore conclude 

 that his description refers to some point very much higher up, and eastward of any 

 place in the valley that I have visited." 



Again he writes : — 



" I was in the Eastern Zemindaris of the Chanda District a very short time ago, 

 and met with the Red Jungle-Fowl in great abundance in the Zemindaris of Pana- 

 baras, Kotgal, Koracha, &c. ; in fact, everywhere on the high table-land east of the 

 Wainganga river. Just below the Ghats, the Grey Jungle- Fowl was met with, but 

 not a single specimen was to be found on the high ground already in the possession 

 of the other species. I traced the occurrence of the Red Jungle-Fowl down as far 

 south as the Zemindaris of Omdhee ; south of that, it was again replaced by the 

 other species. 



+ But note that the Swamp Deer occurs in Bahawalpur and Sind, where neit er 

 sal trees nor Red Jungle- Fowl occur. 



