a 
TUE PEA-FOWL. SI 
start and a puff, and a short run forward, as if something had 
exploded unpleasantly close behind him. These are all blan- 
dishments, we are told, to allure the female, and doubtless 
have a most fascinating effect.” 
Mr. Sanderson writes as follows :—‘‘ Pea-Fowl run very fast, 
but the old cocks, burthened with tails six feet in length, are 
poor flyers, and I have frequently seen my men run them down 
during the hot hours of the day by forcing them to take two or 
three long flights in succession, in places where they could be 
driven from one detached patch of jungle to another. 
“The old cocks are in full plumage from June to December, 
and then cast their trains. 
‘‘Pea-Fowl are, perhaps, the most wary of all jungle crea- 
tures. In beating for large game, where the sportsmen are 
posted ahead in trees, their presence may pass undetected by 
other animals, but rarely by Pea-Fowl.” 
A well-known variety of the Common Pea-Fowl is that 
described by Latham [Gen. Hist. viii. p. 114 (1823)] under 
the name of the Black-Shouldered Peacock, and subsequently 
named Pavo nigripennis by Dr. Sclater (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 221). 
This form differs from the male of typical P, crv7s¢atus in having 
the lesser and median wing-coverts, shoulder-feathers, and inner 
secondary quills bvowmnish-black, more or less glossed with 
purple and edged with green, with only traces of buff mottlings 
on some of the secondaries, the primary quills and their coverts 
being black along the shaft and margin of the inner web, and the 
thighs black. 
Although this variety closely resembles the male hybrids 
between /. crvistatus and the following species P. mutzcus, it 
has been clearly shown that it arises independently in flocks 
of Common Pea-Fowl which have been pure-bred for many 
years, and there can be no doubt that it is merely a sport of 
nature, possibly due to atavism or reversion to the ancestral 
type, from which both the Common and Burmese Pea-Fowl 
have sprung. The male is well figured by Mr. Elliot [ Monogr. 
12 G 
