220 THE RED JUNGLE-FOWL. 



Their habits have been so often and so well described that 

 there is really nothing new to be said about them. Jerdon 

 tells us that " the Jungle-Fowl is very partial to bamboo jungle, 

 but is found as well in lofty forests and in dense thickets. When 

 cultivated land is near their haunts, they may, during the har- 

 vest season, and after the grain is cut, be seen morning and 

 evening in the fields, often in straggling parties of ten to 

 twenty. Their crow, which they give utterance to morning and 

 evening all the year round, but especially at the pairing season, 

 is quite like that of a Bantam Cock, but shorter and never pro- 

 longed as in our domestic cocks. 



" When detached clumps of jungle or small hills occur in 

 a jungly district where these Fowls abound, very pretty shoot- 

 ing can be had by driving them by means of dogs and beaters ; 

 and in travelling through a forest country, many will always 

 be found near the roads, to which they resort to pick up grain 

 from the droppings of cattle, &c; dogs will often put them up, 

 when they at once fly on to the nearest trees. Young birds, if 

 kept for a few days, are very excellent eating, having a consi- 

 derable game flavour." 



Sometimes when thus beating for Jungle-Fowl you meet with 

 odd surprises. It was in April 1853, in the good old days of 

 palki dak from Meerut to Mussooree. Three nights we used 

 to make of it when ladies were of the party, and the close of the 

 second night brought us to the Kheree Dak Bungalow, in broken 

 jungly ground just south of the Siwaliks. After breakfast 



1 went out to look for Jungle-Fowl, luckily with a rifle (a heavy 



2 oz. band spherical ball) in case of seeing Cheetul. We beat a 

 lot of low jungle grass and scattered bushes, and I had got a 

 Partridge and a Jungle Hen, when I turned into a very likely 

 looking nalla, about 80 feet deep, with sloping well-grassed 

 sides, and at the bottom a narrow perpendicular-sided water 

 channel about four feet deep and three feet wide, cut through 

 the boulder clay. In this channel I walked with one or two 

 men along the slopes on either side, and one or two above, 

 all a little behind me ; suddenly there was a shout on my 

 left, and instantly a tremendous grunting ; as I seized my rifle 

 from the shikari behind me, four black heads showed through 

 the grass immediately above me. I could not get out of the 

 wretched water-course, which was nearly up to my armpits, 

 and without one second's hesitation one of the bears (the old 

 female as it proved) came down upon me like a thunderbolt. 

 I got my first barrel off when she was about ten yards from 

 me ; the second let itself off as her chest struck the muzzle, and 

 then I was knocked over, half stunned and nearly crushed to 

 death. I don't know exactly how it all happened, but I found 

 myself on my face, hardly able to breathe ; my head, arms and 

 body pinned down by the massive motionless ^luckily for me) 

 corpse of lady Bruin. Seeing that the bear was quite dead, my 



