THE RED SPUR-FOWL. 249 



The Red Spur- Fowl ranges from near sea level to an eleva- 

 tion at Abu, the Pulneys, and the Ni'lgiris of 4,000 to 5,000 

 feet ; indeed, on the latter it has been shot at over 7,500 feet. 



It is essentially a bird of forests and jungle, on hilly and 

 broken land. It is unsafe to generalize from one's own limited 

 personal experience, but I have the impression that the Red 

 Spur- Fowl goes in more for forests and earth, and that the 

 Painted one more affects scrub jungle and rocks. You rarely, if 

 ever, find the Red, you constantly find the Painted Spur- Fowl in 

 very rocky ground. 



During the day they are but seldom seen and are with 

 difficulty flushed (even with the aid of dogs) from forest 

 patches and thickets in which they are known to be, but in the 

 mornings and evenings they may be seen busy, feeding about 

 like domestic fowls, amongst low brushwood or even in stubble 

 fields on the outskirts of the jungle. 



It is, however, very wary and often as you may thus observe 

 them from some little distance, it will only be quite by chance 

 that you succeed in getting within shot of them whilst thus 

 feeding. 



On the slightest sound, the alarm is given, and the birds 

 disappear into the forest, either darting in on foot or flying 

 up into trees, where, hopping from bough to bough amongst 

 the thick foliage, or hiding in some dense tuft of parasites, they 

 are hopelessly lost to the sportsman. 



At the breeding season they are always in pairs ; at other 

 times they keep in small flocks of from five to ten. 



Though I have never seen them drinking, I think that water 

 must be a great attraction to them, for when in March and April 

 most of the streamlets dry up, all the Spur- Fowl for miles round 

 will be found collected in the few deep, jungly ravines, down 

 which a little water still trickles. 



The Red Spur-Fowl cooked gipsy-fashion is excellent, better, 

 I think, than any of our Partridges, because it is more gamey ; 

 but cooked in the ordinary manner by native cooks, out in the 

 jungles, it is dry, hard and poor. 



Their food consists chiefly, according to my experience, of 

 grain and seeds of all kinds, and small jungle fruit, the berries 

 of the dwarf Zizyphus (Jherbery)^ the figs of the Peepul and its 

 congeners, but I have often found the remains of bugs, beetles, 

 and other insects in their crops mixed with these. 



Although I have shot a good many of this species, I know 

 very little of its habits ; it is a very sly lurking bird, and almost 

 the only time one sees it is when, roused by a happy chance 

 near one by dogs or beaters, it springs up with a strong whir- 

 ring flight, and a loud screaming chuckle, or when a momentary 

 glance is caught of it crossing some little path or darting round 

 a distant bush. Indeed, they run so fast, and so much oftener 

 run than fly, that I hold it in their case quite allowable to shoot 



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