INDIAN GAME-BIRDS AND 

 WILDFOWL 



There is no part of the British Empire in which 

 bird-life is so varied and abundant as in India, 

 and this is especially the case with those groups 

 which interest others than professed naturalists. 

 In respect of her list of game, shore, and water 

 birds our Indian Empire can indeed challenge 

 the rivalry of the world. The two species of 

 peafowl alone — to take the game-birds first — 

 would put any country's list of these in the front 

 rank. We are apt, because the peacock is so 

 well known in domestication, to forget what a 

 wonderful bird he is — to fail to realise that he 

 represents Nature's final effort in the direction 

 of animal decoration, one eyed plume from his 

 train being a perfect design and colour-scheme 

 in itself. And, as if the ordinary peacock were 

 not enough, we are presented, eastward of India 

 proper, with another variation of the type in the 

 form of the Burmese peacock, with its neck of 

 scaly green-bronze and long slender crest ; the 

 ultimate development of the peafowl idea, inas- 

 much as the hen, except that she bears no train, 



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