90 THE COMMON PEA-FOWL. 



Canal banks fringed with trees, and traversing rich cultivation 

 are, as I have already remarked, their especial delight, and in 

 such localities I have found a great many nests, my search for 

 them being stimulated by the conviction that a wild Peahen's 

 eggs are delicious eating, far preferable to a Turkey's, or indeed 

 to any other gallinaceous bird's eggs that I have ever tried. 



Their nests are not confined to the plains, but in the Hima- 

 layas, Nilgiris, and other suitable ranges occur up to elevations 

 of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, and in the Nilgiris, it is said, to 5,000 

 feet. 



The great majority of our Pea-Fowl in Upper India lay during 

 July and August, but I have found eggs as late as the middle of 

 October. The nest is made in amongst thick grass or in dense 

 bushes, often on a sloping bank, and is a broad depression 

 scratched by the hen, and lined with a few leaves and twigs, or 

 a little grass. I have never myself found eggs in the abnormal 

 situations described below by Mr. A. Anderson.* 



I have never found more than eight eggs in any nest, and I 

 think that six or seven are the usual complement ; but natives 

 say (and see also Miss Cockburn's remarks) that they lay at 

 times much larger numbers. 



Captain G. F. L. Marshall says : — " The Pea-Fowl breed 

 during the rains in the Saharanpur, Bulandshahr and Aligarh 

 districts. The eggs are laid on the ground, usually among the 

 thick underwood on the canal banks. 



" Near Bulandshahr, I got six eggs on the 27th July ; the shell 

 is much pitted, pure fawn colour in some, and stained with darker 

 brown in others. 



" Again, in the Aligarh District, I found four fresh eggs on the 

 5th August ; they were laid on the bare ground, inside, but near 

 the edge of an old heap of dry sticks, round which grass had 

 sprung up tall and thick ; this small thicket was in an open 

 plain close to a road with no bushes or other undergrowth near. 



" But they sometimes breed later, and choose more exposed 

 situations even than this. On the 31st August I took three fresh 

 eggs laid without any attempt at concealment whatever : they 

 were on the ground on a dry patch amongst very short grass 

 under the trees on the canal bank ; there was no undergrowth, 

 and the eggs could be seen from some distance." 



Mr. R. M. Adam remarks : — " I had eggs of this species brought 

 to me in Agra on the 14th October. The eggs were a good 

 deal incubated." 



Mr. A. Anderson writes to me that " the Pea-Fowl breeds in 

 the North-Western Provinces during June, July and August, the 

 latter being about the most general month. About November, 

 the young birds are the size of chickens, and are then well 

 worth shooting for the table. Sometimes, though rarely, I have 



* Mr. Whitten, however, tells me that he once found a nest near Chomoha, 

 on the top of a large haystack. 



