8o Allen's naturalists library. 



times still roosting, long after the sun has risen above the 

 horizon. As the mist rises off the valleys, and, gathering into 

 little clouds, goes rolling up the hill-sides till lost in the ethereal 

 blue, the Pea-Fowl descend from their perch on some huge 

 si'mal or sal tree, and, threading their way in silence through 

 the underwood, emerge into the fields, and make sad havoc 

 with the channa, urad (both vetches), wheat, or rice. When 

 sated, they retire into the neighbouring thin jungle, and there 

 preen themselves, and dry their bedewed plumage in the sun. 

 The cock s'ands on a mound, or a fallen trunk, and sends 

 forth his well-known cry, 'pehau;/-pehau;/,' which is soon 

 answered from other parts of the forest. The hens ramble about, 

 or lie dovv-n dusting their plumage, and so they pass the early 

 hours while the air is still cool, and hundreds of little birds 

 are flitting and chirruping about the scarlet blossoms of the 

 'palas,' or the 'simal.' As the sun rises, and the dewy 

 sparkle on the foliage dries up, the air becomes hot and siill, 

 the feathered songsters vanish into shady nooks, and our 

 friends the Pea-Fowl depart silently into the coolest depths of 

 . the forest, to some little sandy stream canopied by verdant 

 boughs, or to thick beds of reeds and grass, or dense thorny 

 brakes overshadowed by mossy rocks, where, though the sun 

 blaze over the open country, the green shades are cool, and 

 the silence of repose unbroken, though the shrill cry of the 

 Cicada may be heard ringing faintly through the wood. 



" These birds cease to congregate soon after the crops are 

 off the ground. The pairing-season is in the early part of the 

 hot weather. The Peacock has then assumed his full train, 

 that is, the longest or last rows of his upper tail-coverts, which 

 he displays of a morning, strutting about before his wives. 

 These strange gestures, which the natives gravely denominate 

 the Peacock's nautch, or dance, are very similar to those of a 

 Turkey-cock, and accompanied by an occasional odd shiver of 

 the quills, produced apparently by a convulsive jerk of the 

 abdomen. The same thing occurs in a Turkey-cock, a little 



