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 runs that the pea-fowl stole 

 the plumage of a bird called by the natives avitchia. 

 I haye not been able to identify the species which. bears 



