Gallus sonnerati, Temminch
VomaCUlar Names.— [Komri, Aft. Abu• Jangli Murghi (Hindustani), iwfl»y /f f rAr
Central India, &*c.; Patdah Komri {Gondht), Ckdnda District ; Ran-kobada
(male), Ran-kobadi (female)* (Mahrati) Sahyaari Range; Kombadi, Decean;
Adavikode, (Telegu) ; Katu-koli (Tamil); Koli, Kad-koli (Canarese),
H I S species is the Jungle-Fowl of Southern India ; but,
though common in the Assamboo Hills to thesoulhernmost
extremity of the Peninsula, does not extend to
Ceylon, where it is replaced by a distinct species.
From the sea to its junction with the Indravati*
the valley of the Godavari indicates approximately
its north-eastern limits. Thence a line drawn through
Pachmarhi to the Nerbudda completes roughly its north-eastern
boundary. Westwards the Nerbudda defines, I believe, its
northern limits to within from 120 to 150 miles of the sea,
where, crossing this river into the westernmost portions of t he
Vindyas, it runs up through Rewa Kantha and Mahi Kantha to
Abu, and thence along the Arvalis to beyond the well-known
Dasuri Pass, stragglers having even been obtained half way
between this and Beawur.
Like their northern congener they arc eminently birds of
jungly and hilly or broken ground, and are not to be found
at any distance from these in level, thoroughly cultivated
tracts ; but throughout all the hilly tracts within the limits
indicated, the entire range of the Western Ghats.f the Satpuras,
and all their southern ramifications, the Nilgiris,
* Mr. R. Thompson says: "The Grey Jungle-Fowl is abundant in the jungles
of Chanda, and I found it common in the valley of the Indravati, at least 50 miles
up from its junction with the Godavari."
t Mr. G. Vidal writes :—
*' Plentiful throughout the Sahyadri Range, and especially in the tract at the
summit known as the * Konkan Glial Mahta.' Scarcer on the eastern and western
slopes.
" Throughout the Ratnagiri district, whose eastern boundary is the watershed
of the Ghats, Jungle-Fowl are found sparingly in the ravines of the western slopes.
A few stragglers are sometimes seen or heard in a few of the larger and more
elevated hills of this district, between the main range and the coast, where these
hills, though detached from the Ghats by steep valleys, are connected by continuous
belts of forest."
Mr. Davidson, C S., tells us that—
"The Grey Jungle-Fowl is found all through the Ghats in the Poona and
Satara districts, but not straying east into the plain Decean districts. It is fairly