tory States. It occurs also immediately below Pachmarhi, but
the exact line of definition of this species and the Grey Jungle-
Fowl between Pachmarhi and the Amarkantak range is uncertain,
as I have as yet been unable to learn what species,
if any, occurs in the hills about Seoni, Kooraiia, Deogarh and
Chhindwara.
Captain Temple and Mr. Ellison, the Deputy Commissioners
of Seoni and Chhindwara, are of opinion that neither species
occurs in their districts.
As bearing on the distribution of this species in the Central
Provinces,* I may note that Forsyth, the well-known sportsman,
stated that its range was " precisely conterminous in the hills
south of the Nerbudda with that of the Swamp Deer (Rucervns
duvanceli), and the sal-tree (Shorca robustct)\. The western
limits of the great belt of sal forests which covers so large a
portion of Eastern India is in the Mandla District, and there
the Swamp Deer and Red Jungle-Fowl also occur. The sal is
not found in Western India; but there is one spot in the
Deinwa Valley, just under Pachmarhi, where a patch of sal forest
occurs, and there, and there only, the Red Jungle-Fowl and the
Swamp Deer arc met with, although the nearest spot to the
eastward where the three again recur is 150 miles distant."
Forsyth added that the two kinds of Jungle-Fowl met on the
plateau at Pachmarhi and that he had shot both there.
It is unknown in Kathiawar, Cutch, Sind, Rajputana, and the
Punjab except in the immediate neighbourhood of the Himalayas
and the Siwaliks, and equally so, except in similar
situations, in the greater portions of the level fully cultivated
* As further illustrating this much-disputed question, I may quote what my friend
Mr. R. Thompson, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Central Provinces, writes :—
" The Red Jungle-Fowl is found nowhere in the Chanda District proper as far as
my personal observations have extended, nor have I heard of its existence from native
shikaris and others. It is found in the Godavari Valley as low down as the hills
north of Rajmandhry, but not above Dumagudiinn, which is now just beyond the
limits of the Central Provinces and within the Madras Presidency. In Central
Bastar, between lS° and 19" N. Lat., it was common on the Baila Dila Plateau.
I met with it in the valley of the Savcrv river which drains a part of Jeypore, and
il may probably extend westwards to as far as the Indravati river, but I have
no certainty as to this last point. Dr. Jerdon describes its existence in the valley of
the Indravati, where I have certainly not met with it, and must therefore conclude
that bis description refers to some point very much higher up, and eastictird of any
place in the valley that I have visited."
Again he writes :—
" I was in the Eastern Zemindaris of the Chanda District a very short time ago,
and met wilh the Red Jungle.Fowl in great abundance in the Zemindaris of Panabaras,
Kotgal, Koracha, ,\c. ; in fact, everywhere on the high table-land east of the
Waingang.l river. Just below tie Ghats, the Gr ey Jungle-Fowl was met with, but
not a single specimen was to be found on the high ground already in the possession
of the other species. I traced the occurrence of the Red Jungle-Fowl down as far
south as the Zemindaris of Omdhec ; south of that, it was again replaced by the
other species.
t But note that the Swamp Deer occurs in Bahawalptll and Stud, where neit cr
sal trees nor Red Jungle-Fowl occur.
THE RED JUNGLE-FOWL, 219
North-Wcst Provinces, though it occurs in the hilly southern portions
of the Mirzapore District. Further, it is wanting throughout
the major portion of the deltaic districts of Lower Bengal,
and in Behar except in the northern submontane tracts.
Outside our limits, the Red Jungle-Fowl occurs throughout
the western half of the Malay Peninsula, right clown to Johore
at its southernmost extremity, and it is also common to this
day in all suitable localities in the jungles of Sumatra.
It does not occur in Borneo, and I very much doubt whether
its natural range extends beyond Sumatra in this direction.
But it is claimed as an inhabitant of all kinds of other
localities, Java, Timor, Lombok, Celebes, the Philippines, and
Hainan, those from the latter belonging to the Indian, from
all the former to the Malayan and Burmese race.
My belief is that into all these localities they have been
imported. All over the Malay Peninsula and India, domestic
fowls are to be seen barely distinguishable from the Red Jungle
Fowl of these countries, and there can be no doubt that
any such which ran wild would very soon, in the face of an
environment similar to that of their original habitat, revert
to the wild type. Nothing can be more certain than that the
fowls on the Great and Little Cocos must have been introduced,
yet they are now perfect Gallus ferrugiueus. Similar Jungle-
Fowl occur at Tahiti, and it is said other islands in the South
Seas, and the Bonin Isles, which no one can accept as being
within the possible natural range of this species.
Then again Scvcrtsov enumerates them as occurring throughout
Western Turkestan. I cannot ascertain, from the abstract
translation of his work which appeared in the Ibis, whether he
means that they are wild there; but if so, they have certainly run
wild. They do not cross the Himalayas ; they do not occur in
Yarkand, in Kabul or Persia, and Turkestan cannot possibly be
included within their natural range.
On the other hand, they do occur in the westernmost portions
of Siam, and not improbably spread throughout this latter
country into Cochin-China.
I have referred to the Indian and Burmo-Malayan races
of this bird. The plumage of the latter is said to be redder,
and taking a large series, there seems some truth in this, though
individual birds from Dchra Dun and Johore, for instance,
can be entirely matched as regards plumage, but in the Burmese
and Malayan birds, the small ear lappet is invariably red,
whereas in the Indian it is almost equally invariably white or
pinky white.
VERTICALLY THIS species ranges from sea level to 5,000 feet
elevation, but like many other species they are generally to be
found lower down in the cold season, and are rarely to be met
with above 3,000 feet, except during the hot season.