PEA FOWL 



Central Province and the Northern Province, but not so 

 common in the North- West Province. They are usually 

 to be found somewhere near water, and I have once 

 walked up and shot a hen in a wet swamp. They are 

 exceedingly wary, and a more difficult bird to approach 

 does not exist anywhere. Here again a light rifle would 

 come in handy, or a .303 with a solid nickle-covered 

 bullet; for you cannot, as a rule, get within 100 yards 

 of your bird. In open plain or swamp, the sight of 

 you 300 yards away will send them running into long 

 grass or scrub. They are easiest approached when 

 perched in a tall tree in the forest, but even then the 

 cock will most likely spot you before you see him and 

 be off. The sight of a cock in full plumage flying, 

 with the sun shining on his wonderful colours, is a 

 sight not soon to be forgotten, and even when stalking 

 about on the ground he forms a most striking spectacle 

 well worth watching. Curiously enough I have never 

 killed a cock ; in fact I have never even fired at one, 

 not for want of a chance, but because some other reason 

 has usually occurred to prevent me, such as meeting or 

 seeing the cock when stalking a buck or an elephant, when 

 a rifle-shot would inevitably have lost me my chance at 

 the bigger game, though it has often been a case of 

 "a peacock in hand worth a buck in the bush." Once, 

 watching for bear at a water-hole with Tom Wright, 

 towards sundown a cock called in the scrub not far away. 

 I imitated the call and gradually drew him up to the 

 water-hole, where Tom shot him just as he was emerging 



from the scrub ; very unsportsmanlike, but ! 



My friend Wallace Westland, of Matale East, on a trip 

 with me a short time ago, secured a fine cock by a neat 

 rifle-shot in Hinguruwatdamana (the old Minneriya paddy 



73 



