t i l MCTii «¡HFiWL
Galloperdix lunulatus, Valenciennes.
Vernacular Names-—[Askol, Orissa and Singhbhoom ; Hootkah, (Gondhi)
Chanda District.; Cull-koli, (Tamil) ; Jitta kodi (Telugu.)]
LTHOUGH the two species cover so much of the
same ground that this may not appear quite clearly
from an enumeration of the localities where they
have each been observed, yet, on the whole, the Red
Spur-Fowl is the more Western, the Painted Spur-
Fowl the more Eastern, form.
The Painted Spur-Fowl has no outlying colony that I
know of, and its northern boundary is indicated by the Ganges,
Jumna and Sindh rivers respectively. South of these, we have it
recorded from Jhánsi, Lalitpur, various localities between
the Sindh and Betwa in Southern Duttiah and Eastern Gwalior,
from Gyah, the Rajmehal hills, from Rajmehal, Monghyr and
Beerbhoom, from Singbhoom, Manbhoom, Lohardugga, Sirgooja,
Jodhpore, Oodeypore, and many places in Chota Nagpore, from
Seoni, Raipur, Sambalpur, north of the iVlahánadi, Bhandára,
the Ahiri forests, various places in the Tributary Mahals, from
Nowagarh, Kurial and other of these Bastar Feudatory States
to the Godávari Valley.* These localities seem to indicate head
* Mr. R. Thompson says :—
" I am not certain that I did not meet with this on the Kymore range. I more
than once saw a small Spur-Fowl, frequenting the hamboo jungles, very shy, that
I could never either shoot or get a good look at, which I am pretty sure must have
been this species.
" I did not see this species anywhere in the Maikal or Satpura Ranges.
"It is, however, the common Spur-Fowl of the Chanda district nlikc below
the Ghats and in the Eastern Zemindaries of Panabaras, Kolgal, Koracha, in fact
everywhere on the high tableland cast of the Wainganga. Found wherever
there is thick bamboo cover on the hills or fringing the streams and nalas descending
from them.
" It is an extremely shy bird, becoming, however, bold and familiar on being
domesticated.
" It is very abundant in the jungles near my house in Chanda, where I have
often seen U feeding in company with the Grey Jungle-Fowl.
" From Chanda it ranges south-east to Bastar and Sironcha. I saw it frequently
in the Godavari Valley as low down as the hills north of Uajmandhiy in the Madras
Presidency. In these hills I found it in company with the Red Jungle-Fowl. In Central
Pastar between 18° and 190 North Latitude, it was very abundant in deep bamboo
jungles, where also occasionally I have heard the Red Jungle-Cock crowing
" On the Indravati river, 50 miles up from its junction with the Godavari river,
I have seen and shot the Painted Spur-Fowi and the Grey Jungle-Fowl, without,
however, having seen or heard of a trace of the Red Jungle-Fowl."