the next or any subsequent day on which they may be looked
for. There was one particularly fine and remarkably shy and
cunning old cock that frequented an open glade in the forest
(above the Government Cinchona Plantations at Ncddivuttum)
in the morning, whereas in the evening he always came into the
plantation and wandered about under the cinchona trees, and
along the plantation roads. He never, to my knowledge—and
I must have seen him fifty times at least—came into the plantation
in the morning, or into the glade in the evening. There
was no doubt as to this being the same bird that frequented the
two places (nearly a quarter of a mile distant), for he was the
largest, handsomest, and to judge from his spurs, the oldest
cock I ever saw. ' I loved that cock as a brother I did,' and at
last I circumvented and shot him.
" 'I he best time to shoot the Jungle-Cock is from October to
the end of May, as then his hackles are in the best condition.
" In June the moult begins, and the male gradually drops
his hackles and long tail feathers, the hackles being replaced by
short feathers, as in the female ; during the rains the male is a poor
mean looking object, not in the least like his handsome self in the
cold weather, and, fully conscious of this fact, he religiously
holds his tongue during this period.
" In September, a second moult takes place, the short feathers
of the neck are again replaced by the hackles, the long tail
feathers reappear, and by October the moult is complete and
our Southern Chanticleer as noisy as ever.
" The male usually carries its tail low, and when running, it
does so with the tail lowered still more, the neck outstretched,
and the whole body in a crouching position as in the Pheasants.
" I do not know for certain whether the species is polygamous
or monogamous, but from what I have observed I should think
the latter ; for although the male does not, I believe, assist in incubation,
yet when the chicks arc hatched, he is often to be
found in company with his mate and little ones.
" These birds are, I believe, quite untamable, even when
reared from the egg, and though in the latter case they may
not be so wild as those captured in maturity, they never take
kindly to domestic life, and avail themselves of the first opportunity
for escaping. It is needless to say that they cannot
easily be induced to breed in captivity. I have known the experiment
tried time after time unsuccessfully.
" Numbers arc trapped by the professional fowlers of
Southern India, and brought for sale, together with Pavo cristatus.
and Perdicula asiática, to the stations on the Nilgiris,
where cocks in good plumage may be purchased for about 8 annas
each. Numbers are also brought to Madras from the Red Hills,
where they are even cheaper. When caught, the eyes arc closed
by a thread passed through the upper and under eyelids and then
knotted together; a short string is then tied to one leg, and the
other end made fast to a long stick. A number of birds are
placed side by side on this stick, which is then carried about
on a man's head. The poor blind birds remain quite quiet, not
attempting to flutter or escape.
" Except for his feathers or as a specimen, the Grey Jungle-
Cock is hardly worth shooting; the breast alone is really
eatable, and even at the best the breast is very dry and hard.
" They roost on trees. Continually in the early mornings,
just at daylight, when out shooting Sambhur, I have disturbed
them from the trees on which they had spent the night.
" Although armed with most formidable spurs, they are not,
so far as my experience goes, quarrelsome or pugnacious. In
the wild state I have never seen them fighting, and I for many
years enjoyed peculiar opportunities for observing them. In
captivity half a dozen, with as many females, will live in the
same compartment of an aviary in perfect peace.
"Another proof of their non-belligerent character is to be
found in the fact that the native bird-catchers never peg males
out to attract others, as they do in every part of the East with
all birds that are naturally pugilistic. Scores of times I have
listened to two cocks crowing at each other vigorously from
closely adjoining patches of cover, but neither apparently ever
thinking of, as an American would say, going for that other cock.
"They are, I think, altogether less plucky birds than the Red
Jungle-Fowl, and they are so extremely wary, where birds and
animals of prey are concerned, and wander such short distances
from the edges of cover, that I think very few of them
fall victims to any enemy but man. There are plenty of
Bonclli's Eagle and some Hawk-Eagles too in the Nilgiris, but
I do not think that these ever succeed in capturing Gre}', as they
do elsewhere Red, Jungle-Fowl ; at any rate, I have never once
seen the feathers of sonnerati strewed about, as I have those of
ferrugineus in Burma.
" Their great timidity and watchfulness result in their yielding
much less sport than the Red Jungle-Fowl. You may get
these latter in standing crops and in many other similar situations
without any extraordinary precautions, but the Grey
Jungle-Fowl never goes more than a few yards inside the fields,
and if a stick cracks, or a sound is heard anywhere within 50
yards, he vanishes into the jungle, whence it is impossible to
flush him. Only when beating the narrow well-defined belts
of tree jungle that run down the ravines on the hill sides in
the Nilgiris, and which we there call "sholas" is anything
like real sport to be got out of them. Then indeed the gun at the
tail end of the slicla may get 3 or 4 good shots in succession,
as they rise at the end of the cover and fly off with a strong
well-sustained flight to the next nearest patch. Even thus, working
hard and beating sliola after shola, a man will be lucky to
bag five or six brace in a day.