I l l ill i l l SPUflHrWL
Galloperdix bicalcaratus, Pennant.
VomMTllMSTamOS.—[Haban (or Uban) Kukuja, Ceylon.]
HAVE never seen this species, which is peculiar to t he
Island of Ceyon, in a wild s t a t e Mr. Hart remarks :—
" Our Spur-Fowl is nearly confined to the Western
and Central Provinces, and the northern portions
of the Southern Provinces. Closely as I have explored
these, I have never seen or heard of the bird in the
Northern or Eastern Provinces proper, although it
may just cross the borders of the Western and Central Provinces
into these."
Captain Lcggc, the able historian of the Birds of Ceylon,
on the other hand, writes to me somewhat differently and in
greater detail in regard to the distribution of this species, and
I can only hope that I have correctly identified the places indicated
in his rather puzzling manuscript:—
" The Ceyloncse Spur-Fowl has a somewhat singular range
in the island. It is numerous in the jungles and forests of the
south-west, in the interior of the Western Province, in the district
of Saffragam, and finally in the Eastern Province, and
inhabits the wooded regions of the Kandyan country, up to
above 5,000 feet, ascending still higher during the cool season.
How far north of the Batticaloa district it extends, I am
unable to say. It is common enough in the Friar's Hood Hills,
and also in similar jungles near Nilgalla, and I have no doubt
is found in the forests at Bintenne, which it ought certainly to
affect in common with the wooded northern and eastern
slopes of the Knuckles ranges, where it is far from uncommon.
In the Western Province it appears to be local, for there arc
many localities in which, during my wanderings, I failed to
hear its unmistakable notes. In the many jungles near Atturngeria
it used to be heard, and I have likewise listened to its
cackling in other forests in the Hewagam Korak. About Ambepussa
it is not uncommon, the damp woods clothing the
labyrinth of hills in that district furnishing it with a secure
retreat. On the side of the central zone I have not traced it
further north than the Kurimegala district, and I do not find
it recorded by my correspondents from Puttalam or Anaradjopura."