244 
BIRDS. 
[Chap. VIII. 
rain is falling. This they allege is associated with 
the incessant screaming which it keeps up during 
showers. 
As we emerge from the dark shade, and approach 
park-like openings on the verge of the low country, 
quantities of pea-fowl are to be found either feeding 
on the seeds among the long grass or sunning them- 
selves on the branches of the surrounding trees. No- 
thing to be met with in English demesnes can give 
an adequate idea of the size and magnificence of this 
matchless bird when seen in his native solitudes. 
Here he generally selects some projecting branch, from 
which his plumage may hang free of the foliage, and, 
if there be a dead and leafless bough, he is certain to 
choose it for his resting-place, whence he droops his 
wings and suspends his gorgeous train, or spreads it in 
the morning sun to drive off the damps and dews of the 
night. 
In some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern 
province, to which Europeans rarely resort, and where 
the pea-fowl are unmolested by the natives, their num- 
ber is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it ceases 
to be "sport" to destroy them; and their cries at early 
dawn are so tumultuous and incessant as to banish 
sleep, and amount to an actual inconvenience. Their 
flesh is excellent in flavour when served up hot, though 
it is said to be indigestible; but, when cold, it contracts 
a reddish and disagreeable tinge. 
The European fable of the jackdaw borrowing the 
plumage of the peacock, has its counterpart in Ceylon, 
where the popular legend rims that the pea-fowl stole 
the plumage of a bird called by the natives avitchia. 
I have not been able to identify the species which bears 
