186 THE PEA. FOWL. 



in the fashion of a collar, to silence them ; the appen- 

 dage, however, is anything but an ornament, and the 

 effect is not permanent. But it must be regarded ds 

 an unhealthy symptom, when any natural or rural 

 sound is displeasing to the ear. The bleating of sheep, 

 the pattering of rain, the hum of bees, the pealing 

 thunder, the laughter of children, the breezy rustling 

 of a grove, the lashing of wintry waves, and the sigh- 

 ing of summer winds, have all been felt by listeners in 

 their happiest moods to be most musical, to have an 

 effect more touching than any music ; and should, 

 therefore, be welcome, instead of distasteful, to the 

 healthy sense. And even the screams of pea fowl, 

 ringing' from a distance on a summer's evening, will 

 suggest an abundance of images and recollections 

 that cannot fail to interest any but the most dull and 

 unimaginative minds. 



RANGE AND DOMESTIC ACCOMMODATION. 



THE causes which disincline many persons from in- 

 dulging themselves with the daily spectacle of this in- 

 approachable model of beauty, are, in the first place, 

 the depredations that it commits upon gardens. For 

 this, there is no help. The dislike which these birds 

 have to enter a fowl house, and their decided determi- 

 nation to roost on trees, or lofty buildings, prevents 

 our exercising a control which should restrain them 

 from mischief till an eye can be kept upon their move- 

 ments. At the first dawn, or at the most unsuspected 

 moments, they will steal off to the work of plunder. 

 A mansion, therefore, the fruit and vegetable garden 

 of which is at a distance, is almost the only place 

 where they can be kept without daily vexation. The 

 injury they do to flowers is comparatively trifling; 

 though, like the Gruinea fowl, they are great eaters of 

 buds, cutting them out from the axils of the leaves as 

 cleanly as a surgeon's dissecting knife would do. 

 They must also have a dusting hole, which is large and 

 unsightly ; but this can be provided for them in some 



