248 THE RED SPUR-FOWL, 



range east of Mandla ; plentiful in the Satpuras between the 

 Waino-an^a river on the east and the Pachmarhi hills on the 

 west." 



From 30 or 40 miles west of Beaur, it is common along 

 the Arvalis to Mount Abu, and thence in the hilly portions of 

 Mahi Kantha and Rewa Kantha, the lower sections at any rate 

 of the valleys of the Tapti and Nerbudda, the westernmost 

 portions at least of the Vindhyas, Chota Oodeypore, and the 

 entire Satpuras, with all southern ramifications, Meilghat and 

 Chekaldeh. 



Specimens have occurred to my knowledge in Seoni,inRaipur, 

 in Bhandara, and in the Tributary Mahals. Ball gives it from 

 Sambalpur south of the Mahanadi ; and Tickell gives the 

 southern part of Singbhoom as a locality for it. 



It occurs in the Wardha valley near Chanda, and in Orissa 

 north of the Mahanadi. 



Further its range extends along the entire Western* Ghats 

 from the valley of the Tapti, (Lanauli, Khandala, Matheran,f 

 Mahabaleshwar, &c.) right down the Malabar Coast ; over the 

 Wynaad, Calicut, the Nilgiris,the Palghat,the Pulney and Sherve- 

 roy hills, and even the low hills close to Madras itself ; to the 

 lower Godavari valley and the Northern Circars to Goomsoor. 



It is entirely unknown in Rajputana, west and north of 

 the Arvalis from Beaur (which it scarcely reaches) to Abu 

 in Northern Guzerat, Cutch, Kathiawar, Sind, the Punjab, the 

 North-Western Provinces, north of the Jumna, Oudh, Bengal, 

 north and east of the Ganges, and other Eastern Provinces, 

 excepting always the Oudh Tarai colony, which may possibly 

 just extend into the Tarais of Rohilkhand and Behar. 



Certainly the distribution of the Red Spur-Fowl is as yet very 

 imperfectly understood, and it inosculates so strangely with 

 that of the Painted Spur- Fowl, as will be seen when I come to 

 deal with that species, that at present I can make nothing of 

 the question. Both species seem to me to affect almost the same 

 localities and to have exactly the same habits, to be in fact 

 complemental species, like the Red and Grey Jungle-Fowl, or the 

 Black and Painted Partridges, &c, and the way in which they 

 seem to overlap each other's areas of distribution by many 

 hundreds of miles is therefore most inexplicable. I need perhaps 

 scarcely add that this species is essentially Indian and occurs 

 nowhere out of India. 



* "Common," writes Mr. Vidal, "in the same localities as the Grey Jungle-Fowl 

 in all the thick forests of the Sahyadri Range, and more especially so at the summit 

 in the tract called the Konkan Ghat Mahta. A few Spur-Fowl are also found here 

 and there in large temple forests, with thick undergrowth, in the Thai, Konkan, or 

 country below the Ghats ; but they are rare in such localities, and do not, as a 

 rule, leave the thick evergreen jungles of the main range." 



t " Its call," says Mr. James, "is one of the most conspicuous sounds at Matheran, 

 where it is very common." 



