THE RED JUNGLE-FOWL. 225 



I am not going to discuss the problem, on which so much has 

 been written, as to whether all our domestic poultry really spring 

 exclusively from the Red Jungle-Fowl or whether other wild 

 stocks have contributed a strain. The discussion is perfectly 

 profitless, because the problem is perfectly insoluble, since every 

 trait or detail of plumage or of colour or shape of soft parts which 

 may be adduced as proving the intermixture of other wild species 

 (and there are many breeds in which such appear) may be equally 

 explained on the assumption that they are instances of attavism, 

 and are derived through the Red Jungle-Fowl from the common 

 stock out of which all existing species of Jungle-Fowl diverged. 



But looking to the geographical position of the Sundarbans, 

 at the apex of the Delta, and its very recent origin, I should 

 not be surprised if Mr. Rainey were right, and all the Jungle- 

 Fowl there found were really, as a great number undoubtedly 

 are, the progeny of tame races ; in which case these Sundar- 

 bans birds furnish another illustration of the readiness with 

 which the tame fowls revert, under favourable conditions, to the 

 wild ancestral type. 



From Tenasserim, where alone, within our limits, he has seen 

 much of them, Davison records that "this species was extreme- 

 ly abundant in the bamboo forests about Pahpoon, and to the 

 north of that place, and I have found it not uncommon over 

 the rest of the province, except in the higher hills. It frequents 

 all kinds of localities, dense forest, thin tree, bamboo and 

 scrub jungle. It comes out in the morning and evening into 

 the fields and clearings, retiring during the day to cover. They 

 are always found in larger or smaller flocks, consisting of males 

 and females ; when disturbed they usually rise at once and 

 disperse in different directions ; when the female is sitting or 

 has young ones, she keeps apart from the flocks, and generally 

 keeps to cover, seldom coming into the open until the chicks 

 are well grown and pretty strong on the wing. 



" On one occasion, near Pahpoon, I counted thirty males and 

 females seated side by side on one enormous bent bamboo. 

 Mr. Hildebrande was with me, or I should not have ventured 

 to record the fact. I counted them carefully through my 

 binoculars. They were at the other side of the Younzaleen, 

 I guessed about 70 yards off; I loaded a large duck gun with 

 big shot, fired at the lot and — apparently did not touch one." 



No one specially notices the extreme pugnacity of these 

 birds in the wild state, or the fact that where they are numerous 

 they select regular fighting grounds much like Ruffs. 



Going through the forests of the Siwaliks in the north- 

 eastern portion of the Saharanpur district, I chanced one after- 

 noon, late in March, on a tiny open grassy knoll, perhaps ten yards 

 in diameter and a yard in height. It was covered with close 

 turf, scratched in many places into holes, and covered over with 

 Jungle-Fowl feathers to such an extent that I thought some 



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