26th February 1975

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter of 13.02.1975.

Only one species of jungle foul exists in Ceylon namely Gallus lafayettei, the Ceylon jungle foul. We exhibit three breeding pairs. They are kept in a large walk-in-aviary where they not only thrive but also get somewhat tame. The Javan Green Jungle Fowl is also represented in our collection, but we have only one male at the moment.

There is not related sub species to Gallus lafayettei, there species being peculiar to Sri Lanka.

I have enclosed literature on the Ceylon jungle foul extracted from two books which will provide you with all the information about their size, colour, characteristics and habits.

I trust that the information provided therein would be of help to you.

Yours faithfully,

Director

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Size of a small, but not bantam, breed of domestic fowl. The jungle fowl is distributed throughout the island, wherever jungle or dense scrub of any extent is to be found, but it is nowadays common only in the wilder parts of the dry zone. In the neighbourhood of villages and roads it is shy and wary, but in remote jungles it is sometimes very tame and will strut about and crow in full view, like a village fowl. A slight acquaintance with man and his ways, however, quickly changes it into the embodiment of caution. It spends its life in forests on its outskirts never venturing far from cover, though, especially in wet weather, it likes to frequent open places, such as roadsides on glades, for the purpose of feeding free from drippings from the trees. Most of the hours of day-light are spent on the ground, where it walks with a jaunty carriage though with the tail less elevated than in domestic fowls. If disturbed by human approach it generally runs for cover unless come upon suddenly when, with a great flurry of wings, it flies off to a distance; but if put up by a dog or other carnivore it almost invariably flies up to a branch of the nearest tree, from which it peers at its enemy, with tail elevated, cackling its alarm for some time before flying off to a safer area.

The hen’s cackle is a high-pitched, metallic kwikkuk, kwikkukkuk... Hen desire-note, uttered when, for instance, she is about to lay an egg, is a kra, krak very like that of domestic hen but higher pitched. She calls her chick with a rather shrill cluck. The cock’s crow, which appears to be basically an assertion of territorial claims, is a staccato, musical, ringing chiok, chaw-choyik, the terminal ik being higher in the scale than the rest; this crow is uttered with the head somewhat depressed and the beak jerked sharply up at each syllable. In early morning the cock will crow for several minutes while strutting up and down a branch of his roosting tree, before fluttering down to begin his morning feed. When challenging a rival, the crow is generally preceded by a vigorous clapping of the wings together above the back, from three to six claps. Unfortunately for the cock, the sound of this clapping is very easily imitated, and numbers are thus lured within gunshot by this means. Although the cocks are very pugnacious, evidence of actual fighting is rare, crowing being normally sufficient for the maintenance of territorial right; when a fight does occur, however, it is fierce and bloody.

The food of the jungle fowl consists of grain, weed-seeds, berries, various succulent leaves and buds, and a large proportion of small animals, such as crickets, centipedes and termites; the latter form the main food of the chicks. When nillu flowers and seeds in up-country jungles, jungle fowl migrates to these areas in large numbers to fatten on the abundant seed. They are also very fond of the seeds of the small hill-bamboo which, like nillu, seeds only at long intervals. The hens are very industrious scratchers, particularly when they have a brood of chicks. Early in the evening, jungle fowl fly up into trees to roost, usually singly, but sometimes in pairs or family parties. Unless disturbed they will use the same perch night after night for considerable periods. The perch chosen is generally high, well screened with foliage, and not much ticker than a man’s thumb.

The main breeding season is in the first quarter of the year, but often a second clutch is laid in August-September, and breeding may go on throughout the year. The courtship display of the male is very similar to that of a domestic cock: it consists of running closely round the hen with his body canted towards her so as to display as much as possible of his plumage, and especially the metallic purple rump-feathers; at the same time, the wing nearest to her is drooped and its primaries scraped with the foot. The nest is often a shallow scrape in the ground, concealed by herbage, at the foot of a tree or beside a dead log; but many nests are above ground level, on top of dead stumps or on a platform of rubbish caught up in a tangle of creepers, etc. The hen sits very close, and leaves her eggs only at intervals of several days. She approaches and leaves the nest very stealthily. The eggs number two or four; they are creamy-white, some very finely peppered, others more boldly but sparingly speckled with brown. They measure about 48 x 35 mm. The chicks are very precocious, learning to scratch as soon as they leave the nest. At the mother’s alarm-call they instantly scatter and disappear in amazing way under dead leaves, etc, remaining motionless until her little metallic cluck reassures them. Their wing feathers grow rapidly, and in a week they are able to fly into trees to roost, which they do covered by the mother’s wings, or even snuggled between her legs on the perch.

Description

Male

 The hackles of the neck and the smaller wing coverts are golden, or straw yellow, with dark shaft-stripes; on the crown the feathers shade into chestnut, on the back, scapulars, medium wing coverts, and elongated feathers at the side of the rump into shining yellowish red with almost black shaft-stripes; feathers of the dower back and centre of the rump amethyst with reddish chestnut margins; greater wing coverts black splashed with dull chestnut; primary quills dark brown, secondaries black with a metallic purple gloss; tail coverts glossy violet; tail feathers black with a purple and steel blue gloss; fore-neck glossy purple, the breast bright chestnut with dark shaft-stripes; shading trough reddish brown on the upper abdomen into dull blackish brown with rufous edges on the thighs and towards the vent; under tile coverts greenish black.

Female

The crown is dark brown, the sides and back of the neck blackish brown with rufous edges to the feathers; these colours gradually shade into the fine, vermiculated, blackish brown and buff of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts; rump and tail similarly coloured, but the shafts of the feathers are darker; primary quills dark brown with lighter mottling on the outer web; secondaries and greater wing coverts black, boldly marked with mottled, buff cross-bars and tinged at the ends with rufous; the chin and throat are almost naked; lower breast and abdomen white with broad, black markings, which disappear towards the vent; under tail coverts of the same colour as  tail.

Young males resemble females, but the upper plumage is more rufous, and there is no white on the under parts. In the male the bill is brownish red, paler at the tip and on the lower mandible; comb orange yellow, shading into bright red on the edge; the naked face, throat, and wattles are purplish red; iris light yellow; legs and feet pale yellow, darker down the front; tarsus armed with a sharp spur. In females the bill is dark brown, paler beneath; iris olive yellow; feet and legs has in the male, but without any spur.

Male: length about 27; wing 9.5; tail 13 to 15; tarsus 3.25; bill from gape 1.2

Female: length about 14; wing 7; tail 4; tarsus 2.5; bill 1.1

Distribution

Peculiar to Ceylon. Found in most parts of the Island, except in the more cultivated districts. Its chief haunts are the forests of the north and the scrub jungle of the dry maritime districts. It ascends in great numbers to the Horton Plains and over elevated plateaux when the nellu (a species of Strobilanthes) is ripe, to feed on the seeds.

Habits

A jungle bird living largely in the cover of the undergrowth. In the morning and evening, especially after rain, it comes out on the roads, jungle paths, and open spaces in the forest to feed; during the heat of the day it keeps well inside the jungle, and at night time roosts in trees. The cry of the cock, cluck -joj-joice, may be heard constantly from sunrise till about 9 am; the hen has a curious, little metallic clucking cry. The cocks appear to be polygamous, and to leave all family cares to the hens. I have taken the eggs in nearly every month of the year. The nest is sometimes a small hollow in the ground under a bush, or behind a fallen log, the eggs resting on a few dry leaves. I have, however, often found it in such situations as on the stump of a failed tree, in the tangle f dry leaves caught up by bush overhanging a water course, or in an oven-shaped hollow in a tree trunk. The eggs vary in number from two to four. In shape they resemble those of a domestic hen. The ground colour is creamy white with light brown, or purple brown markings, which vary from an excessively fine stippling all over the egg to comparatively large and scattered freckles. Their average size is 1.82 by 1.39.