262 THE CEYLON SPUR-FOWL. 



Mr. Hart further says : — 



" Clearly the bird prefers the damper regions to the dry and 

 sandy portions of the Island. They are never seen in the 

 open or in any dry forest, though their familiar far-sounding 

 notes may often be heard amongst the scrub and stunted 

 bushes that surround the native villages. 



" Very shy and subtle are they, and hard indeed to get sight 

 of and shoot, though easily enough snared. 



" They feed on various kinds of grain, but perhaps chiefly 

 on white ants and various other insects and their larvae." 



To Captain Legge, again, we are indebted for the follow- 

 ing note : — 



" The shy habits of this bird would prevent its being detected 

 in most places where it is even abundant, were it not for its 

 noisy cries or cackling, so wel) known to all who have wandered 

 in our Ceylon jungles. 



" It frequents tangled breaks, thickets in damp nalas, forest 

 near rivers, jungle over hill sides, and in fact any kind of cover 

 which will afford it entire concealment. 



" It runs with great speed, and has a nack of noiselessly beat- 

 ing a retreat at one time, while at another it ventriloquizes its 

 exciting notes, until the sportsman becomes fairly exasperated, 

 and gives up the attempt he has made to stalk it in disgust. I 

 have more than once endeavoured to cut off its retreat, or 

 flush it by rushing into a little piece of jungle or detached 

 copse in which I had found it, and from which it seemed im- 

 possible for it to escape, but I invariably failed in the attempt, 

 — a failure aggravated by my utter bewilderment at its un- 

 accountable disappearance. 



" The cock birds begin to call about 6 in the morning, and when 

 one has fairly commenced, the curious ascending scale of notes 

 is taken up from one to another, until the wood resounds with 

 their cries. 



" They always seem to keep in small parties, which perhaps 

 consist of the young of the year with their parents. 



" The natives in the Central Provinces snare them with horse- 

 hair nooses, set in spots which they are observed to frequent 

 in the early morning. 



" They do not live well in confinement, either killing them- 

 selves by fighting, or knocking their brains out by flying up against 

 the top of their aviaries, and if they escape this fate, they are 

 liable to die of some disease." 



" Peculiar to Ceylon," writes Mr. Holdsworth, "abundant on 

 many parts of the hills, and frequenting also jungly places in the 

 low parts of the southern half of the island. During the winter 

 months it is numerous in the coffee districts and upper hills, 

 and is trapped in large numbers by the natives. It is skulking 

 in its habits and difficult to flush, usually seeking concealment 

 in the thicker parts of the jungle when it is disturbed." 



