Joyce* call is, as Mr Holdsworth renarks, preceded by a sharp monosyllabic 
note, sounding like *tek*. This gentleman also says that he has seen the 
cock, when •-calling*, strutting up and down a low horizontal branch or a 
tree, raising and lowering its head as it gave out its note. 
I have remarked in my note on “distribution* that numbers of Jungle Fowl 
visit the forests in which the undergrowth of *Nillo* # a species of Strobi-fe 
lanthus, is so abundant, for the purpose of feeding on its seeds, ana the 
popular idea obtains that the fruit of this shrub has the effect of stupe¬ 
fying the birds. Certain it is that at that period the Jungle Fowls in 
the Horton Plains and about Mewera Ellia do become affected, and are appa¬ 
rently so intoxicated that they may be knocked down with a stick. Mr 
Holdsworth, writing on the subject, says he failed to discover that anyt 
thing was known to botanists of the seeds of this plant possessing narcotic 
properties; and he suggests that the birds may perhaps eat some noxious 
fungus growing in the woods where the nillo thrives. 
Another idea among the Sinhalese is that the Jungle Fowl become blind at 
this season from eating nillo seeds. Mr Bligh writes me on this subject 
as follows:- “About chat season of the year ii village fowls oe Drought to 
the hills they rarely escape a serious eye disease, which rapidly spreaus tr 
throughout a given district, and in many cases they become totally olind in 
two or three weeks. THIS IS THE DISEASE which the Jungle Fowl evidently 
catch. A dog of mine"caught a Jungle Fowl with one eye lost, evidently 
from this cause. 
The flight of the Jungle Fowl is strong, but they rarely take wing un¬ 
less suddenly surprised; their usual mode of escape from danger is oy run¬ 
ning, which they do with considerable speed. 
NIDIFICATION 
In the North of Ceylon the Jungle Fowl breeds in the early part of the 
year (when I have procured its eggs), and most likely at other seasons as 
well. In the Hambantotte district I have met with-young chicks in July, 
and in the neighbourhood of Kaduganawa in December, while at Horton Plains 
young have been seen in April; and finally in the KuKkul Korale I nave ta¬ 
ken its eggs in August. From this it 'ill appear that it breeds through¬ 
out the year. 
The nest is almost always placed on the .. round near a tree, under a busq. 
or beneath the shelter of a fallen log; a hollow is scratched and a few dry 
leaves placed in it for the eggs to repose on. I once found a nest in 
damp soil between the large projecting flange like roots of the Doon tree. 
