734 PAVO CRISTATUS. 



branches in its way. After feeding in forest-districts it is its habit to mount up to the lower limbs of large 

 trees and dry the morning dew from its plumage ; and it is a fine sight to see a number of these splendid birds 

 in this elevated position at the edge of a grove. They will remain preening themselves until approached within 

 a few hundred yards, and then disappear at once into the scrub beneath them. Towards evening, I have noticed 

 that they again take to trees, and rest on large limbs, where they can have an outlook on the surrounding 

 thickets and easily apprize themselves of any danger. Emerson Teunent, in writing of the forest solitudes of 

 the Park country, speaks thus of the Peafowl which frequent them : — " As we emerge from the dark shade and 

 approach the park-like openings on the verge of the low country, quantities of Peafowl are to be found, either 

 feeding on the seeds among the long grass, or sunning themselves on the branches of the surrounding trees. 

 Nothing to be met with in English demesnes can give an adequate idea of the size and magnificence of this 

 matchless bird when seen in his native solitudes. Here he generally selects some projecting branch from 

 which his plumage may hang free of the foliage ; and if there be a dead and leafless bough, he is certain to 

 choose it for his resting-place, whence he droops his wings and suspends his gorgeous train, or spreads it in the 

 morning sun to drive off the damps and dews of the night." 



As Jerdou truly remarks, few sportsmen resist a shot at a fine Peacock whirring past them, although it is 

 not a favourite game, old birds being tough and unfit to eat. The young Peahen, however, when cooked in 

 an orthodox fashion, is excellent eating ; and these birds, as the native Shikarees knew well, were not by any 

 means despised by the garrison in the Fort of Trincomalie, a locality not famed for the quality or quantity of 

 the butcher's meat. 



The Pitta, more than any bird in Ceylon, has been the subject of legends with the inhabitants of the 

 country; and I have already, in previous articles, referred to some of these. There is one mentioned by 

 Emerson Tennent, connected with the Peacock, to the effect that this bird stole the plumage of the Pitta 

 or Avitchia, whose singular cry the Singhalese liken to the word mut-ki-any, which means, "I will complain;" 

 and this, "they believe, is addressed by the bird to the rising sun, imploring redress for its wrongs"! 



Mr. Elliot, in his magnificent ' Monograph of the Phasianidse,' gives the result of his observations of the 

 Peacock in the Terai in the following interesting paragraph : — 



" In the months of December and January, the temperature in the forests of Central India, especially in 

 the valleys, is very low, and the cold (from sudden evaporation) intense at sunrise. The Peafowl in the forest 

 may be observed at such times still roosting, long after the sun has risen above the horizon. As the mist rises 

 oft' the valleys, and, gathering into little clouds, goes rolling up the hill-sides, till lost in the ethereal blue, the 

 Peafowl descend from their perch on some high seemul orsaul tree, and, threading their way in silence through 

 the underwood, emerge into the fields, and make sad havoc with the chunna, oorid (both vetches), wheat, or 

 rice. When sated, they retire into the neighbouring thin jungles, and there preen themselves, and dry their 

 bedewed plumage in the sun. The cock stands on a mound or fallen trunk, and sends forth his well-known 

 cry, pehaun-pehaun, which is soon answered from other parts of the forest; the hens ramble about or lie down 

 dusting their plumage ; and so they pass the early hours while the air is still cool, and hundreds of little birds 

 are flitting and chirruping about the scarlet blossoms of the polas or the seemul. As the sun rises and the 

 dewy sparkle on the foliage dries up, the air becomes hot and still, the feathered songsters vanish into shady 

 nooks, and the Peafowl depart into the coolest depths of the forest, to some little sandy stream canopied by 

 verdant boughs, or to thick beds of reeds and grass, or dense thorny brakes overshadowed by mossy rocks, where, 

 though the sun blaze over the open country, the green shades are cool, and the silence of repose unbroken, 

 though the shrill cry of the Cicada may be heard ringing faintly through the wood. There are spots in these 

 saul-forcsts which, for luxurious coolness during the sultriest weather, rival the most elaborately devised recesses 

 of the Alhambra, or the tinkling fountains of Isfahan; and the wilder denizens of the woods show no small 



discernment in selecting them In such lovely retreats one might cheat the hot hours of noon, and rob 



them of their discomfort ; but, alas ! these are the spots where lurks malaria, and, moreover, where one may be 

 very apt to intrude on the privacy of some misanthropic tiger ! " Other writers, likewise, tell us that the 

 natives believe tigers always frequent forest where Peacocks abound. 



In a state of nature the Peacock is chiefly granivorous, feeding on seeds, grain, and buds, but it like- 

 wise consumes insects ; in a domestic state it is, as we all know, omnivorous, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, 

 nor any thing that it can get hold of, coming amiss to it. 



