78 Lloyd's natural history. 



Habits. — Mr. A. O. Hume writes: — "An Indian bird par 

 excellence^ the Common Pea-Fowl, though widely spread 

 throughout India proper, does not normally extend elsewhere, 

 except into Ceylon and Assam. 



"Even within these limits it is not universally distributed, as 

 it affects water and cultivation, and in no way shuns the abodes 

 of nien. But there may be too much water, cultivation, and 

 population to suit its taste. 



" As a rule, the Pea-Fowl is not a bird of high elevations. 

 On the Nilgiris I know it occurs as high as 5,000 feet at Cook's 

 Hill, on the north-east slopes of those mountains, and it may 

 even, as Jerdon says so, though I have been unable to verify 

 this, occur up to 6,000 feet, but it does not, I believe, ascend 

 the Pulneys, or the Ceylon Hill'^, to elevations of above 3,000 

 feet ; and in the Himalayas, though in the river valleys it 

 penetrates, as in Central Gahrwal, far into the hills, it is rarely 

 seen above 2,000 feet. Broken and jungly ground, where 

 good cover exists, near water on the one hand, and cultivation 

 on the other, is the favourite resort of the Pea-Fowl, and, 

 wherever this favourable combination exists within the limits 

 indicated, there the Pea-Fowl is sure to abound. Canals, with 

 their grass- and tree-clad banks, are, in Upper India, pet 

 abiding places of the species. . . . 



" But it is not only in such seemingly suitable localities that 

 this species thrives amazingly ; it is to be seen almost through- 

 out Rajputana. In and about the rocky and semi-desert 

 tracts, for instance, in which lie Jeypore, and the more ancient 

 capital of that state, Umber, myriads of Pea-Fowl are to be 

 met with. Everywhere throughout Upper India a certain 

 superstitious reverence attaches to the Pea-Fowl, nnd the mass 

 of the population more or less dislike their slaughter ; but, in 

 these native states, the prohibition is absolute, and no man, 

 native or European, can or does molest them, though tigers 

 and leopards, if the people speak truly, are less amenable to 

 authority. . , . 



