Their habits have been so often and so well described that
there is really nothing new to be said about them. Jerdon
tells us that "the Jungle-Fowl is veiy partial to bamboo jungle,
but is found as well in lofty forests and in dense thickets. When
cultivated land is near their haunts, they may, during the harvest
season, and after the grain is cut, be seen morning and
evening in the fields, often in straggling parties of ten to
twenty. Their crow, which they give utterance to morning and
evening all the year round, but especially at the pairing season,
is quite like that of a Bantam Cock, but shorter and never prolonged
as in our domestic cocks.
" When detached clumps of jungle or small hills occur in
a jungly district where these Fowls abound, very pretty shooting
can be had by driving them by means of dogs and beaters ;
and in travelling through a forest country, many will always
be found near the roads, to which they resort to pick up grain
from the droppings of cattle, &c.; dogs will often put them up,
when they at once fly on to the nearest trees. Young birds, if
kept for a few days, are very excellent eating, having a considerable
game flavour."
Sometimes when thus beating for Jungle-Fowl you meet with
odd surprises. It was in April 1853, in the good old days of
palki dak from Meerut to Mussooree. Three nights we used
to make of it wdicn ladies were of the party, and the close of the
second night brought us to the Kheree Dak Bungalow, in broken
jungly ground just south of the Siwaliks. After breakfast
1 went out to look for Jungle-Fowl, luckily with a rifle (a heavy
2 oz. band spherical ball) in case of seeing Chcctul. We beat a
lot of low jungle grass and scattered bushes, and I had got a
Partridge and a Jungle lien, when I turned into a very likely
looking nalla, about 80 feet deep, with sloping well-grassed
sides, and at the bottom a narrow perpendicular-sided water
channel about four feet deep and three feet wide, cut through
the boulder clay. In this channel I walked with one or two
men along the slopes on either side, and one or two above,
all a little behind me ; suddenly there was a shout on my
left, and instantly a tremendous grunting ; as I seized my rifle
from the shikari behind me, four black heads showed through
the grass immediately above me. I could not get out of the
wretched water-course, which was nearly up to my armpits,
and without one second's hesitation one of the bears (the old
female as it proved) came down upon me like a thunderbolt.
I got my first barrel off when she was about ten yards from
me ; the second let itself off as her chest struck the muzzle, and
then I was knocked over, half stunned and nearly crushed to
death. I don't know exactly how it all happened, but I found
myself on my face, hardly able to breathe ; my head, arms and
body pinned down by the massive motionless (luckily for me)
corpse of lady Bruin. Seeing that the bear was quite dead, my
shikari and a good pahari bearer I had soon pulled her off
and released me, a mass of blood, a good deal cut and bruised,
but not really h u r t ; my first bullet had gone straight through her
from stem to stern (2 oz. hardened bullet and six drams of
powder), the other had gone right through the heart and come
out behind the ribs on the left side.
It will be well for griffs (as I then was) to bear in mind
that, in the Sub-Himalayan ranges at any rate, where Jungle-
Fowl are common, there bears and tigers are not unlikely to
be met with, and that they should never beat for Jungle-Fowl
in such situations on foot, without a rifle in trustworthy hands
behind them, and never allow themselves to be caught in such
a trap as that in which I had stupidly placed myself.
Beavan says:—
" The best shooting I ever got at this species was at Jalpaiguri,
where the nallas, or beds of streams, in the neighbourhood,
which are common in that country, and filled with jungle,
gave cover to very many of these birds. When put up by beaters
they fly out at a considerable pace, and require a good knockdown
blow to bag them. They run, too, a great deal. In the
Manbhoom district the native shikaris used to get many of
them by placing corn near some water in the half-dried-up beds
of streams, and then shooting them when they came there both
in the early morning and evening to eat and drink."
Colonel Tickcll remarks :—
" It is off the alluvion, in the dry, stony jungles between
Midnapore and Chota Nagpore, that the Jungle-Fowl are met
with in the greatest numbers. In favourable situations, such
as narrow strips of cultivation in the woods after the crops have
been reaped, I have 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. On such occasions they do not appear to plant sentries
like the Crane and Wild Goose, but 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