with dark brown and pale buff. The only other
dove likely to be seen at the Nilgiri hill stations is the little
brown dove (_T. cambayensis_), which utters a five-or-six-syllabled
coo.

THE PHASIANIDAE OR PHEASANT FAMILY

This important family includes the pea- and the jungle-fowl and the
various pheasants.

The peacock is not found at altitudes above 4000 feet.

Jungle-fowl are abundant on the Nilgiris. He who keeps his eyes open
may occasionally see one of these birds running across a road in the
hills. This must not lead the observer to think that jungle-fowl spend
most of their time in sprinting across roads. The fact of the matter
is that the fowl tribe do not appreciate their food unless they have
to scratch for it. Paths and roads are highly scratchable objects,
hence they are largely resorted to for food; further, they are used
for the purpose of the daily dust-bath in which every self-respecting
fowl indulges. If these birds are disturbed when feeding or bathing,
they do not make for the nearest cover as most other birds do: they
insist on running across the road, thereby giving the grateful
sportsman a clear shot. The domestic rooster has the same habit. So
has the Indian child. To test the truth of these assertions, it is
only necessary to drive briskly along a street at the side of which
children or fowls are playing in perfect safety. At the sight of the
horse, the child or hen, as the case may be, makes a dash for the
far side of the road, and passes almost under the horse's nose. The
fowl always gets across safely. The child is not so fortunate.

Two species of jungle-fowl have partitioned the Indian peninsula
between them. The red species (_Gallus ferrugineus_) has
appropriated the part of India which lies between Kashmir and the
Godavery; while the grey jungle-fowl (_G. sonnerati_) has possessed
itself of the territory south of the Godavery. The third jungle-fowl
(_G. lafayetti_) has to be content with Ceylon, but the size of its
name very nearly makes up for its deficiency in acres!

Davison is my authority for stating that the _Strobilanthes whitiani_,
which constitutes the main undergrowth of many of the forests of the
Nilgiris, seeds only once in about seven years, and that when this
plant is seeding the grey jungle-fowl assemble in vast numbers to
feed on the seed. They collect in the same way for the sake of bamboo
seeds. The crow of the cock, which is heard chiefly in the morning
and t