excessively common in the Giro Hills and in others of the hills
south of the Assam Valley." It docs not, however, Captain
Williamson tells me, occur in the Khasi Hills.
1 leretofore the idea has been that the Common Pea-Fowl did
not go eastwards of the Giro Hills and the low valleys running
into these, and that elsewhere in Assam it was replaced by the
Burmese bird ; but I can find no evidence to support this view.
I have never been in Assam, nor have I ever seen specimens of
Pea-Fowl thence, but at least a dozen officers now in Assam write
t o say that the Common Pea-Fowl is abundant there, and that
they have seen no other.
It is said to be found in Chittagong, but this requires confirmation.
I cannot learn that it occurs in Sylhct, or Cachar, or
Manipur, or in the Eastern Naga Hills, or in Tipperah, so that
it is difficult to believe in its existence wild in Chittagong,
though it may not impossibly have been introduced there.
In the Andamans, it has been introduced, and now, I believe,
breeds freely there in the neighbourhood of the settlements ; for
a long time it was entirely confined to Ross Island, where the
vociferous cries of scores, at all hours, whenever a gun was fired
or a gong struck, rendered it, to my notion, a serious nuisance.
As a rule, the Pea-Fowl is not a bird of high elevations. On
the Nflgiris I know it occurs as high as 5,000 feet at Cook's Hill,
on the N. E. slopes of those mountains, and it may even, as
Jerdon says so, though I have been unable to verify this, occur
up to 6,000 feet, but it docs not, I believe, ascend thePulncys, or
the Ceylon Hills, to elevations of above 3,000 f e c t ; and in the
Himalayas, though in the river valleys it penetrates, as in Cent
r a l Garhwal, far into the hills, it is rarely seen above 2,000 feet.
I have however shot it at over 3,000 fect in the lower
ranges that overlook the Dun, and at over 4,000 near Bilaspur,
west of Simla ; and Mr. Young writes to me that it " occurs
in one locality in the north of Mandi-Doralban, and in Kulu
Seoraj at an altitude of 6,000 feet, in both instances haunting one
particular valley and not extending beyond it." I suspect, however,
that at both these localities and near Eilaspur it has been
introduced, and when Dr. Scully, writing from Nepal, says :—
" I t is found along t h e outer base of the sandstone range, about
Bishiaksh, but not in any great numbers; it does not extend
further into the hills, nor occur in a wild state in the valley of
Nepal ; nor does it, to the best of my belief, ascend the hills to
a height exceeding 2,000 fect, if even that;"—he is only, 1 think,
describing the normal distribution of the bird along the entire
southern face of the Himalayas.
BROKEN AND jungly ground, where good cover exists, near
water on the one hand, and cultivation on the other, is the
favourite resort of the Pea-Fowl, and wherever this favourable
combination exists within t h e limits indicated, there the Pea-
Fowl is sure to abound.
Canals, with their grass and tree-clad banks, are, in Upper
India, pet abiding places of the Pea-Fowl. I have seen a canal
opened out through a dry bare Doab district, where only here
and there a few of these birds, perhaps a dozen in day's journey,
were to be met with ; and ten years later, driving down the canal
road (the canal by that time with high grass-clad banks and
a belt of trees and grass on either side), I have counted several
scores in one of tbe three-mile lengths that on the Ganges
canal intervene between bridge and bridge.
But it is not only in such seemingly suitable localities that
this species thrives amazingly ; it is to be seen almost throughout
Rajputana. In and about the rocky and semi-desert tracts,
for instance, in which lie Jeypore, and the more ancient capital
of that state, Umber, myriads of Pea-Fowl are to be met with.
Everywhere throughout Upper India* a certain superstitious
reverence attaches to the Pea-Fowl, and the mass of the population
more or less dislike their slaughter ; but in these Native
States the prohibition is absolute, and no man, Native or
European, can or does molest them, though tigers and leopards,
if the people speak truly, are less amenable to authority.
Talking of these, is there, I would ask, any foundation for
the universal belief that exists amongst natives throughout
t h e length and breadth of the land, that these beasts feed
largely on Pea-Fowl; that when these latter arc surprised, especially
by leopards, the cocks either fly at and buffet the leopards,
or else stand paralysed with fear, in either case falling an easy
prey to the cruel cat ?
The late Colonel Tytler used to relate how one day, when stalking
a Peacock, he was surprised to find that he had suddenly
closely approached it, and that, bestowing no thought on him, it
seemed intently gazing on a tiny patch of jungle just in front.
Halting for a moment, he discovered a leopard stealthily crawling
on its belly through the jungle towards the Peacock. He was
much astonished ; he had never heard of leopards in the neighbourhood,
but his astonishment exceeded all bounds when, on
his raising t h e gun (he had ball in one barrel), and covering the
leopard, it suddenly threw up both its paws and shrieked in a
voice hoarse with terror " Neliin Sahib, NeJiin Sahib, mat ckulao"
(No sir, No sir, don't fire). He said that for a moment he
* Mr. Rcid, however, writes : — " So far as I know, the natives of Oudh nowhere
object to Pea-Fowl being shot ; but if asked whether there are any in the neighbourhood,
they will most likely reply in the negative. Generally speaking, however, there
is no difficulty in getting them to give information, and frequently, without being
asked, they will suggest a little Pea-Fowl shooting, and themselves enter enthusiastically
into the sport.
" Although sportsmen, as a rule, do not care about shooting Pea-Fowl, it is as well
that they should know that dogs arc preferable to beaters for flushing the birds.
They will hide from man, but rise at once when they find a dog on theil track. In
thick jungle, two or thiec plucky terriers answer the purpose admirably."