ON THE WEST COAST OF CEYLON 69 



young peacock. This was a welcome addition to 

 our table, but the Express bullet had made rather 

 a mess of it. Pea - fowl have a habit of sitting: 

 sunning themselves on stumps and dead trees in 

 the early morning, and often afford pretty shots for 

 the rifle ; but a rook rifle should be used. This is 

 almost the only way one can get a shot at them 

 in Ceylon, where they are very shy. In India, of 

 course, being sacred, they are tame enough. I have 

 often thought when, in beating hillsides there for 

 big game, the pea-fowl came sailing over my head, 

 what glorious "rocketers" they would make if they 

 would only fly a bit higher. From consideration 

 for the feelings of the natives, and also because 

 they are so tame, they are rarely molested in India, 

 except by Tommy Atkins, who cannot be deterred 

 from shooting them either by stringent orders, or 

 by the prospect of a free fight with a whole village 

 should he be detected. 



After breakfast we had another turn, with the 

 guns this time, and bagged some quail and jungle- 

 fowl. It is a pity that the latter bird is so des- 

 perate a runner, for when he does get on the wing 

 he resembles a cock - pheasant a good deal. Of 

 course when in hand the resemblance ceases, the 

 bird being in appearance something between a game 

 fowl and a golden pheasant, but with the colouring 

 of the former. 



Before we started that night a native for whom 

 "Will had sent turned up. Though he had by no 

 means the ability of the east coast trackers, Jim 

 Crow (a perversion of his native name) had often 

 acted as tracker to those Englishmen who had tried 

 their luck on the less well - stocked country about 



