Pavo muticus, Linne. 



Vernacular Names.— [Doun, Doung, Oodoung, (Burmese^ ; Marait, (Talain) ; 

 Toosia, (Karen) ; Bourong Ma rah, (Malay) ; Pegu-majura, (Bengali ;) 

 Calcutta.] 



HE Eastern Pea-Fowl nowhere advances within the 

 limits of India Proper. 



It has been said to occur in Assam, and it may 

 possibly do so, but all my recent enquiries lead to a 

 contrary conclusion. 



It occurs in Arakan, in Pegu, and throughout 

 Tenasserim to the Pakchan, but is very rare in the 

 dry upper parts, and is everywhere a bird very locally distributed. 

 In the northern portions of the Malay Peninsula it is not un- 

 common ; at a village called Yian, not far from Keddah, for 

 instance, it is extremely (for this species) abundant, but it does 

 not, so far as my collectors have ascertained, extend as far 

 south as Malacca. 



It has been recorded from Siam, and is in parts of Java very 

 plentiful, but though the contrary has often been asserted, there 

 seems no good reason to believe that it occurs in either Sumatra 

 or Borneo. 



It is well to notice that our Arakan and Tenasserim race is 

 said to be darker and less vividly green than the Javan one. 



In MANY respects, as regards habits, food, and modes of life, 

 the Eastern bird closely resembles the Indian one, but there is 

 this essential difference, at any rate everywhere within our limits, 

 that the Eastern bird is never found in thousands, throughout un- 

 broken stretches of country a hundred or more miles in length, 

 as the Indian bird is, but only in small colonies in isolated spots, 

 w r henceyou may often travel fifty or a hundred miles before 

 coming across another colony. 



Like its congener, it moves about feeding morning and 

 evening, advancing into fields, if there happen to be cultiva- 

 tion near at hand, at these times, and retreating during the day 



