oh Ciel te ne 
followed by his harem 
THE PEA-FOWL, 79 
“The Pea-Fowl is at times omnivcrous, and land-shells, 
insects of all kinds, worms, small lizards, and even tiny frogs 
may be found in their crops, but by choice I think they feed 
on grain and tender juicy shoots of grass and flower-buds, and 
I have scores of times examined their stomachs without find- 
ing a trace of anything else, although, had they been so 
minded, animal food of all kinds abounded round them. 
“Where numerous, they do much damage to cultivation, 
and, being excessively fond of the buds of trees, are also very 
destructive to young plantations.” 
In Colonel Tickell’s delightful account of this species we 
read :—“ Pea-Fowl roost at night on high trees. The highest 
they can get in the jungle they inhabit; but they select the lowest 
branches for their perch. ‘They are rather late in roosting, and 
I have heard them flying up to their berths long after sunset, 
and when the Night-Jars had been for some time abroad, flit- 
ting over the dusky jungle. The cock-bird invariably leads the 
way, rising suddenly from the brushwood near the roosting- 
tree, with a loud ‘kok-kok-kok-kok,’ and being presently 
four or five hens. If marked to their 
roosting-place, and if it be a clear moonlight night, they may 
be easily shot, for, not knowing where to go, they will frequently 
remain on the tree till fired at two or three times. When 
forced to quit, they fly towards the ground, and pass the rest 
of the night as well as they can, sometimes falling a ey to 
leopards or wild cats. If there are hills in the jungle, th 
Cy CLG Aste 
at 
Fowi select some promine: t tr-e on the top, or half-way up: im 
the Nilgiris and other mountain regions in Southern India, says 
Jerdon, this bird ascends to the height of 6,000 feet above the 
sea ; but in Sikhim (Darjiling) and other parts of the Himalaya, 
not higher than 2,000 feet. . . ~ Colonel Tickell con- 
tinues :—‘“‘In the months of December and January, the tem- 
perature in the forests of Central India, especially in the valleys, 
is very low, and the cold, from sudden evaporation, intense at 
sunrise. The Pea Fowl in the forests may be observed at such 
