THE COMMON PEA-FOWL. 89 



" I have shot them on bright moonlight nights by beating 

 the trees situated near cultivated lands where they are known 

 to roost, and, on the 1st September 1872, I made a day after 

 Pea-Fowl in lieu of Partridges, in some islands near Mandigiri, 

 in the Hamavati river in Mysore, and by posting markers along 

 both banks of the river, to prevent the birds taking to the main 

 land, I bagged twelve cocks in full plumage after a day's hard 

 work. The Natives have no feeling against their being shot in 

 Mysore. 



" I once shot a hen of a uniform dirty yellow colour, and 

 saw another like her in the same locality. 



" The native trappers imitate the various cries of these birds, 

 without any artificial aids to the voice, very cleverly, and 

 decoy them into snares laid for them. When caught, the bird's 

 eyes are immediately closed by the stem of a feather being passed 

 through both eyelids, so as to sew them together ; they are 

 then placed on a perch, and do not move though carried from 

 place to place." 



Albino, or at any rate white varieties, or nearly white ones, 

 occasionally, as noticed by Mr. Sanderson, occur wild. They 

 have quite a permanent breed at home of this white bird, and 

 most of the white specimens that we see in menageries of Rajas 

 here have been brought out from Europe by Jamrach and others ; 

 but I have known one or two of these shot in quite wild out-of- 

 the-way places. Thus Dr. King showed me at Dehra a skin of a 

 white specimen, a female, that had been shot in the wilds of 

 the Eastern Dun, which precisely resembled the bird that 

 Mr. Elliot figures as the female of another variety, commonly 

 known as the Japanned Peacock, Pavo nigripetmis, of Sclater. 

 This latter variety has never yet been met with except in capti- 

 vity, and it would be well for sportsmen to examine the specimens 

 they shoot, and see if they ever do meet with it in a wild state. 



In nigripennis the whole of the scapulars and wing-coverts 

 (which in the common Peacock are cream-coloured with trans- 

 verse blackish markings) are black, with narrow green edgings, 

 which towards the carpal joint become bluish ; the metallic green 

 of the back is of a more golden tint, and the thighs are black 

 instead of being pale drab as in cristatus. 



Some people maintain that this is a distinct species of which 

 the habitat is as yet unknown ; others consider it merely a variety 

 that has arisen in captivity in Europe. It would be extremely 

 interesting should it prove to occur wild, and any one shooting 

 such a bird should preserve the skin, however roughly. 



The Pea-Fowl, according to my experience, lives pretty much 

 all the year round and breeds in the same neighbourhood. 

 Colonel Tickell talks of multitudes of them migrating 100 to 

 150 miles yearly from the plains to the Tarai, but I have had 

 no experience of this. 



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