THE POULTRY BOOK. 
259 
eastward it extends into tlie Madras Presidency as far as the Godavery, where it 
meets with Sonnerat’s Jungle fowl, indi’viduals of the two species frequently inter- 
breeding. It is more abundant to the eastward of the Ganges, through the vast 
Teraij and Morung forests, Dacca, Silhet, and Chittagong; and, farther south, 
through Arakan, Burma, and Tenasserim, Malayana, and the islands of the Archi- 
j)elago as far as Timor and the Bonin Isles. All the individuals in the Indo- 
Chinese countries are subject to a trifling variation, having the ear-coverts red or 
rust coloured instead of white. The birds found in the Cis-Himalayan range are 
said to be paler coloured than those farther south. 
In India proper I have found this bird more numerous to the south than to the 
north of the Ganges. It is off the alluvium in the dry, stony jungles between 
Midnapoor and Chota Nagpoor, that the Jungle fowl are met with in the greatest 
numbers. In favourable situations, such as the narrow strips of cultivated land 
in the woods, I have, after the crops have been reaped, seen as many as twenty or 
thirty together gleaning about in the stubble ; and where the country is thinly 
inhabited they will, in twos and threes, advance pretty boldly into the open. They 
are at all times excessively timid and wary. When approached in open spots, far 
from covert, they take wing as readily as partridges, springing with a loud flutter, 
and flying steadily and strongly to the jungle, with rapid beats and alternate 
sailings of their wings. They alight generally within the edge of the covert, and 
then run so long and swiftly as to render it quite hopeless to follow them. There 
is no bird more difficult to approach, or even to see, when in the jungle. The 
cocks may be heard of a morning or evening crowing all round, but the utmost 
precaution will not, in most cases, enable the sportsman to creep within shot or 
sight of the bird. The hen, too, announces the important fact of having laid an 
egg with the same vociferation as in the domestic state, but is silent ere the stealthiest 
footstep can approach her hiding-place, and, gliding with stealthy feet under the 
dense foliage, is soon far away in the deep recesses of the jungle. To a stranger it 
is not a little curious to hear the familiar sounds of our farm-yards issuing from 
the depths of the wild forest. The crowing of the cocks, the cackling of the hens, 
the chirruping of the chickens, are precisely the same as we have been accustomed 
to hear since the earliest dawnings of our intelligence, and, associated as the 
homely sounds are with civilization and domestication, they appear out of place in 
the solitude of the jungle ! 
Owing to its secluded life, the breeding habits of this bird are very little known. 
A question has arisen amongst naturalists as to whether the cock in its natural 
state is monogamous or polygamous. I am inclined to think the latter, from 
seeing always so many hens to one male bird, and this in every season 
of the year. The information I have gathered from birdcatchers, who are 
in the jungles during the twelve months, certainly confirms the above conjecture. 
The period for incubation varies according to locality, but is generally at the begin- 
ning of the rains — h c., June. I have seen eggs, however, in March, and Jerdon 
says the hen breeds as early as in January and as late as July. She selects for 
this purpose some secret thicket in the most retired and dense part of the jungle, 
z 2 
