1890.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



i7 



flat, becomes gradually less wooded and more barren until on the 

 borders of Kathywar there are miles of sandy desert producing 

 nothing in the way of vegetation but a low growing plant something 

 like a stonecrop in appearance, and having only a few inhabitants 

 who live in widely scattered villages, round which there is a small 

 area of cultivation. I saw nothing but open country in the Ahmed- 

 abad Zilla, with the exception of a small amount of bush jungle 

 along the streams, and a few other stray patches of jungle, none of 

 which were more than a few hundred acres in extent. 



In ordinary cold weather there is a very large amount of water all 

 over Gujerat, for besides the tanks that supply the numerous villages, 

 there are numbers of jeels or pools formed by the accumulation of the 

 water of the rains in natural hollows. There is the Sabarmati, too, 

 a considerable river, and several smaller streams, while on the extreme 

 west is the Null, a salt lake of large extent. Of paddy fields I did 

 not see many, but there were some at Kathwara, which appeared to 

 be a favourite feeding gronnd for the common teal. Unfortunately 

 for me the rains of 1888 had not been satisfactory, and in consequence 

 water was decidedly scarce ; most of the tanks were very low and 

 many of the hollows that should have been jeels or snipe marshes 

 were absolutely dry. 



Having made these few preliminary remarks I will now proceed 

 with my notes. 



THE COMMON PEA-FOWL. 



PAVO CRISTATUS, LINNAEUS. 



The Common Pea-fowl inhabits the whole of India Proper, being 

 replaced in the countries to the East by another species, the Pavo 

 muticus of Linnaeus. I have included N among the game birds of 

 India because in some parts of that country it is looked upon as such, 

 although, as a matter of fact, whereever I came across it it was more 

 than half tame. It was very plentiful round Ahmedabad but was 

 always found in the neighbourhood of villages and cultivation, and 

 appeared to seek rather than shun the presence of mankind. Although 

 so tame, the Pea -fowl of Gujerat are nevertheless real wild birds in 

 one sense, for they wander about at their own sweet wills, and as far 

 as I know, are not considered the property either of individuals or of 

 villages. In fact my shikari on two or three occasions proposed to me 



