The men worked splendidly under the direction of the “Dying Rabbit.”  On the second day they put up a sambur which ran within a hundred feet of us but was absolutely invisible in the high grass.  When we returned to camp we found that a civet (Viverra) had walked past our tent and begun to eat the scraps about the cook box, regardless of the shouts of the mafus and servants who were imploring Heller to bring his gun.  After considerable difficulty they persuaded him that there really was some cause for their excitement and he shot the animal.  It was probably ill, for its flesh was dry and yellow, but the skin was in excellent condition.

Civets belong to the family Viverridae and are found only in Asia and Africa.  Although they resemble cats superficially they are not directly related to them and their claws are only partly retractile.  They are very beautiful animals with a grayish body spotted with black, a ringed tail, and a black and white striped pointed head.  A scent gland near the base of the tail secretes a strong musk-like odor which, although penetrating, is not particularly disagreeable.  The animals move about chiefly in the early morning and evening and at night and prey upon birds, eggs, small mammals, fish, and frogs.  One which we caught and photographed had a curious habit of raising the hair on the middle of its back from the neck to the tail whenever it was angry or frightened.

Although there were no houses within half a mile of camp we were surprised on our first night to hear cocks crowing in the jungle.  The note was like that of the ordinary barnyard bird, except that it ended somewhat more abruptly.  The next morning we discovered Chanticleer and all his harem in a deserted rice field, and he flew toward the jungle in a flash of red and gold.

I dropped him and one of his hens with a right and left of “sixes” and found that they were jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) in full plumage.  The cock was a splendid bird.  The long neck feathers (hackles) spread over his back and wings like a shimmering golden mantle, but it was hardly more beautiful than the black of his underparts and green-glossed tail.  Picture to yourself a “black-breasted red” gamecock and you have him in all his glory except that his tail is drooping and he is more pheasant-like in his general bearing.  The female was a trim little bird with a lilac sheen to her brown feathers and looked much like a well-kept game bantam hen.

The jungle fowl is the direct ancestor of our barnyard hens and roosters which were probably first domesticated in Burma and adjacent countries long before the dawn of authentic history.  According to tradition the Chinese received their poultry from the West about 1400 B.C. and they are figured in Babylonian cylinders between the sixth and seventh centuries B.C.; although they were probably introduced in Greece through Persia there is no direct evidence as to when and how they reached Europe.