2 , o THE RED SPUR-FOWL.
them like rabbits, and I have killed many more by firing into
bushes behind which they were disappearing than on the wing.
When you have the luck to flush them, they offer an easy shot
and are brought down with light shot and at long distances,
but if not stone dead, they can never hardly be found without
dogs, as they not only run like greyhounds, but if badly hit
will creep into any hole about the roots of trees or even in
the ground.
Jcrdon says that their call is a sort of crowing cry; I have
never heard any attempt at crowing on their part ; they are
rather silent birds, but when a covey has been broken up, you
may hear them after a time calling t o each other with a sort
of cackling cry, like that of domestic fowls when disturbed, or
of an old hen after she has laid an egg. I have been unable
to distinguish the sexes by their voices.
I have only seen this species in Central and Western India.
Davison, who has been familiar with them in the Nflgiris,
says :—
" The Red Spur-Fowl is found sparingly about the higher portions
of the Nflgiris, but is more common on the lower slopes,
and in the Wynaad. It is not perhaps quite so easily banished
by increasing population as is the Grey Jungle-Fowl, a good number
even yet surviving in the immediate vicinity of the station
of Ootacamund, where, however, doubtless they are hard enough
to circumvent.
" I t seems to affect by preference dense and thorny cover in
the vicinity of cultivation, but is also found in small isolated
patches of jungle or sholas, and along the outskirts of the
larger forests. It is perhaps found more numerously on the
lower portions of the northern and western slopes of the Nflgiris.
" Though, as Dr. Jcrdon remarks, two or three Spur-Fowl usually
form part of a day's bag on the Nflgiris, they are by no
means easy birds to obtain ; for without dogs it is almost impossible
to flush them, and I have often observed that, even with
dogs, they will run before these, till they come to some dense
thorny bush, when they will silently fly up out of reach and
hide themselves in the thickest part, and once so concealed, it
is almost impossible to flush them without cutting the bush to
pieces. When flushed they rise with a cackle, and fly well and
strong for a couple of hundred yards. Their flight is very like
that of the Kyah Partridge. They are usually found in small
coveys of four or five birds, and when flushed do not rise together,
but at irregular intervals, dispersing in different directions
; they are often found in pairs, and not unfrequently I have
come across single birds.
" They come into the open in the mornings and evenings to
feed, and wander about a good deal. Even after they have retired
into the shade they do not rest quietly, but wander about
THE RED SPUR-FOWL. 251
hither and thither under the trees, scratching about among the
dead leaves.
" A well-wooded ravine with plenty of thorny undergrowth
and with a stream of water in it, is always a favourite resort of
this species."
I do not think that this species is in any degree migratory, but
no doubt in many localities, in hot weather, when all springs
and pools dry up, the birds shift their quarters a few miles
to where water is available. With this exception, wherever it
occurs, it is, I believe, a permanent resident, and there breeds.
IT LAYS ACCORDING to locality from the end of February
to the middle of June, and perhaps again in October and
November, although of this I am not sure. It makes a slight
nest on the ground, of dry leaves and grass, often in a hollow
scratched for the purpose, always in more or less dense undergrowth,
and in many parts of the country, I am told (though
this is not my experience), almost exclusively in bamboo
thickets. It is, I judge, monogamous ; certainly both cock and
hen are usually to be found in the vicinity of the nest and in
company with the young.
It lays from four to seven eggs, I should say, but others have
found as many as ten, and I have myself seen a brood of eight
chicks with one pair of old ones. The hen seems to sit unusually
close ; at any rate I have twice known one captured by the
hand, by a native, on the nest.
" On the Nflgiris," says Davison, " the Spur-Fowl breeds in
the same localities as the Grey Jungle-Fowl and makes the
same slight nest. The breeding season, however, is in May and
June. I have rarely found more than five eggs in a nest.
" I have found its nest three times," writes Darling ; " once in
the Wynaad on a rock in the jungle, with a little Citronella grass
growing on it, the nest being only a few dried pieces of grass,
containing five eggs, well incubated. Again on the edge of the
jungle, in thick fern, with seven eggs, which were laid in a hollow
with a little dried fern in i t : this was also in Wynaad. The
third nest was on the Nflgiris at Kartary. This nest was
placed in long Citronella grass at the foot of a large tuft, and
was built neatly of sticks, leaves, and grass and contained six
eggs well incubated."
From Kotagiri, Miss Cockburn remarks : " They form their
nest in woods on the ground among dry leaves, and generally
lay from six to ten eggs of a dingy white colour, which are
to be found in the months of February, March, and April."
From Abu, Dr. King writes to me : " This species is common
at Abu in the valleys, ranging as high as 4,000 feet, but
is most plentiful from about 1,500 to 3,000 feet above the sea.
It prefers dense jungle about nalas, where there is a thick undergrowth,
and especially where there is much bamboo.