game in this country, and especially of wild peacocks in the wood- 

 lands, is astonishing: every village seems to have an appropriate 

 share of these birds in the surrounding groves. There, as in the 

 Dhuboy districts, peacocks and monkeys are protected, and allowed 

 an ample share of grain in the cullies, or farm-yards. The pea- 

 fowl in other parts of the country, secluded from the haunts of 

 men, subsist, no doubt, upon wild fruits, insects, and reptiles, 

 which every where abound, especially of the coluber tribe; for 

 although, like the rest of the species, the pea-fowl of Guzerat are 

 granivorous, they are also very fond of serpents, and devour them 

 whenever they have an opportunity. The natives are still more 

 obliged to the sahras, stork, crane, and many other graminivorous 

 and aquatic birds, for the destruction of those enemies, which they 

 swallow with great avidity. And as the snake devours poultry 

 and animals of various descriptions, ten times larger than itself, so 

 the peacock contrives to swallow a serpent of almost incredible 

 magnitude; even the cobra-di-capello, and others of a poisonous 

 nature. 



The cobra-di-capcllo, or coluber naja, is as common in Guzerat 

 as in many parts of Hindostan. At Dhuboy they were of the 

 largest size, and generally of a paler colour than those in the 

 Concan, occasioned perhaps by the contrast: the hood of those in 

 Guzerat appears more brilliant, and the black and white marks in 

 the spectacles more distinct than in the darker kind at Bombay. 

 The hood is dilatable to a great degree, at the pleasure of the animal. 

 This faculty is occasioned by the length of the bony rays proceed- 

 ing from the sides of the vertebras in that part; and which, assisted 

 by proper muscles, enable the snake to extend the skin of the 



