
FOREWORD 
Ever since the Foreign Game Introduction Program was 
started, in 1949, cooperating States have expressed continuing 
interest in finding a game bird that might thrive in woodland and 
forest habitats, where grouse, turkey, or quail are not found in 
sufficient numbers to provide satisfactory hunting opportunities. 
Attention has been directed recently to the possibilities of the 
Reeves pheasant for northern forested areas but, up to now, no 
bird has been recommended as potentially adaptable to the warmer 
woodlands lying for the most part south of the Mason-Dixon line, 
While working in southern Asia, Foreign Game Introduction 
Program biologists have been alert to the possibilities of locating 
such a game bird. One excellent possibility, the copper pheasant 
of Japan, was rejected because of the difficulties of wild-trapping 
it in large numbers or of propagating it in captivity. 
Monal, cheer, and koklass pheasants from the higher 
Himalayas have not been studied because of travel restrictions 
but may, likewise, be difficult to obtain in numbers. The forest- 
living, hill partridges and the red spurfowl from lower elevations 
were considered similarly and turned down. Their secretive habits 
and reluctance to take wing, unless hard-pressed, left much to be 
desired as a game bird. Only two species resident in India, the 
red junglefowl and the kalij pheasant, currently appear to be 
worthy of serious consideration, Both are excellent sporting birds, 
abundant over a large range, and occupy habitats similar to many 
forested areas in the southern United States. They are available 
in fair numbers apparently and are adaptable to propagation on game 
farms in numbers sufficient to permit substantial trial releases, 
Though the ranges of the two overlap along the foothills 
of the Himalayas, the red junglefowl inhabits less rugged to flat 
forest and brushy coverts, where summers are hot and humid, and mild 
winter temperatures prevail. The kalij inhabits rougher or more 
mountainous, wooded terrain, with cooler summers and somewhat 
colder winters. 
This report supplements the Game Bird Data Sheets, pre- 
viously prepared, covering these species. It is based on a com- 
prehensive review of the literature and on field observations, 
unavoidably restricted by Indian security regulations. Emphasis 
is placed on salient points in the consideration of a species for 
trial introduction and on the general areas in various States in 
which either or both might well be worth a trial. 
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