198 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



abundance. In the crops of Peafowl in Java, besides berries and white ants, I 

 found grass-seeds, peppers, flower petals, crickets, grasshoppers and small moths. 



The birds are becoming rarer in Java, and before many years, as the plantations 

 increase, they will become extinct. Pythons are said to kill them, although I have only 

 the assertion of several gentlemen in different parts of the island as proof. 



A reliable observer in Java reported to me that he had once witnessed three cocks 

 showing off simultaneously to a pair of hens. Several people testified to the severe 

 battles which take place during the season of courtship. One man was able to walk up 

 to within a few yards of the two combatants before their alarm overcame their pugilistic 

 emotions. The same gentleman found a dead bird which had been pecked and spurred 

 in a frightful manner, the breast torn open and an eye destroyed, the evidence all point- 

 ing to a duel with another bird. On another occasion in mid-September he found five 

 recently hatched chicks in a dry swamp, with no signs of the parent about. But a half- 

 hour later all had disappeared, so the hen must have come silently and led them away. 



In Java, Peafowl are in perfect plumage in June and July and August, and it is 

 during this period at the beginning of the east monsoon that the courtship and fighting 

 take place. In the north, in Burma, the breeding season is about the same. The birds 

 moult in August in the north, in October and November in Java, but there is much 

 irregularity. Newly hatched chicks have been found from August to December in 

 southern Burma. At Chang-lung, on the Salwin River, a female on March 21st had 

 partly-developed eggs in the ovary. 



In the Malay States I found only old nests with the remnants of eggshells, but in 

 Java I had the good luck to discover a nest with the hen sitting. This contained five 

 eggs about half incubated. The nest was on the ground between two trees in light 

 jungle not very far from a coffee plantation. It had a secure protection from all ordinary 

 surprise, as the trees grew from a narrow ledge which projected abruptly from the 

 mountain slope, and the rock wall back of it made it necessary for the bird to look 

 for danger only from in front down the hill-side. The bird flew, when she saw she 

 was discovered, with loud screams which drew answering calls from several distant 

 Peafowl. 



As many as six chicks have been observed in Pahang following a single hen, but 

 two seems to be the number ultimately reared to maturity, both on the coast and in the 

 interior. Several Dutch observers, one of whom made a collection of eggs, had found 

 nests with four, five and six eggs, all of which were complete sets. In captivity the 

 Green Peafowl has been known to deposit as many as eight in a single laying. 



The eggs are hardly to be distinguished from those of the Indian bird, varying 

 from dull white to rich dark cream. I have never seen a spotted one. The extremes 

 in size are 70 mm. by 87 in length, and 52 by 55 in breadth, the average being 78 by 

 53 mm. 



Green Peafowl are much more delicate than the other species, and not nearly so 

 amenable to domestication. They breed less readily, but the chicks seem to be easily 

 reared. In the case of eighteen individuals which have lived in the London Zoo, the 

 average length of life was thirteen months, while one bird lived almost four years. 



