THE COMMON PEA-FOWL, 85 



logical cupidity. When followed in this manner, without a dog, 

 the Peacock keeps running before the sportsman, gliding and 

 slipping through apparently impervious thickets, occasionally 

 stopping in some patch of grass, from whence, with outstretched 

 neck, he regards his pursuer ; and at length, if hard pressed, 

 rising heavily on wing and flying far into the densest covert, 

 leaving the baffled " gunner" to make the best of hip way out 

 into the open, where the morning sun may dry his clothing 

 drenched with the chilling dew. Of an evening, one may 

 obtain a good shot or two by walking through the jungle skirt- 

 ing a field of wheat, rice, or vetch, some fifty yards in advance 

 of two or three beaters, who are instructed to keep that distance 

 from you. Pea-Fowl thus invaded in the thick tangle of a 

 luxuriant crop run very little, and will rise just in advance of 

 the beaters, so as to give the sportsman a fair shot. A good 

 thing is valued the more for its scarcity. The Peacock is suffi- 

 ciently rare in the parts of India I am now referring to, to be 

 there prized accordingly ; and to see a magnificent fellow, with 

 his long train, coming over you, and then tumble him over — ■ 

 head over heels, head over heels — with a thump on the ground 

 as he crashes through the boughs, is by no means an unpleasant 

 sight, to say nothing of its being very pretty ball practice. 



" Pea-Fowl roost at night on high trees. The highest they 

 can get in the jungle they inhabit ; but they select the lowest 

 branches for their perch. They are rather late in roosting ; I 

 have heard them flying up to their berths long after sunset, and 

 when the Night Jars had been for some time abroad, flitting 

 over the dusky jungle. The cock bird invariably leads the 

 way, rising suddenly from the brushwood near the roosting 

 tree, with a loud " kok-kok-kok-kok," and being presently fol- 

 lowed by his harem — four or five hens. If marked to their 

 roosting place, and if it be a clear moonlight night, they may 

 be easily shot, for, not knowing where to go, they will frequently 

 remain on the tree till fired at two or three times. When forced 

 to quit, they fly towards the ground, and pass the rest of the 

 night as well as they can, sometimes falling a prey to leopards 

 or wild cats. If there are hills in the jungle, the Pea-Fowl select 

 some prominent tree on the top, or half-way up. In the Nil- 

 giris and other mountain regions in Southern India, says 

 Jerdon, this bird ascends to the height of 6,000 feet above the 

 sea ; but in Sikhim (Darjeeling) and other parts of the Hima- 

 laya, not higher than 2,000 feet. For my part I have never 

 seen Pea-Fowl at any elevation above the Tarai, though I have 

 rambled about the hills in Sikhim at Pankabari, and near 

 Bichiako, and Harrakwari, on the Nepal frontier. In the jungle 

 mahals and Singhbhoom, the Pea-Fowl roost on small hills, 

 but descend to the cultivated valleys to feed. On the loftier 

 hills of those regions, such as Dalma, Parasnath, and the 

 Chutia range above the Damoodur, I have never met with them. 



