130 BOMBAY DUCKS 
A similar belief prevails in India. There is a country 
saying which may be thus rendered: “The peacock 
danced merrily until he caught sight of his legs, when 
he was ashamed and wept bitterly.” 
According to Lockwood Kipling, the supposed negli 
ness of the feet of the peacock is thus accounted for: 
“The peacock and the partridge, or, as some say, the 
myna, had a dancing match. In those days the peacock 
had very pretty feet. So when he had danced the 
partridge said, ‘Lend me your feet and see me dance,’ 
They changed feet, but instead of dancing the deceitful 
partridge ran away and never came back again!” 
But let us leave these frivolities and return to sober 
science. Peafowl belong to that large family of birds 
which does not build nests. In such cases the young 
are born covered with down and usually in a condition 
to fend for themselves. The peahen lays her eggs ina 
hole scratched in the ground and lined with grass or 
leaves. The breeding season seems to vary considerably 
in the different parts of India. 
The favourite haunts of peafowl are wooded, well- 
watered areas, but they often occur in cultivated country, 
especially in Upper India, where they are protected in 
many places. In such districts, at the harvest seasons, 
the birds appear to spend most of the day in fields of 
ripening crops, and dozens of them may be flushed in 
the course of an afternoon’s quail shooting. Peacocks 
are very abundant in some of the groves attached to 
temples; such birds may be said to be in a semi- 
domesticated state. Indeed, peafowl seem to be as 
ready to attach themselves to man as their related 
