thought he must be going mad, floods of reminiscences of
enchanted princes, fairy talcs, wehr-wolves, and the like,
flashed like lightning through his mind. The next, he saw
a man very cleverly got up in a leopard skin, with a wellstuffed
head, and a bow and arrows in one paw, standing before
him.
From this man he learnt that he was a professional fowler, and
that thus disguised he always pursued Pea-Fowl, as whenever
able to get anywhere near them, they always allowed him to
approach near enough to shoot them with his bow, or at times
even to seize them with his hands.
Great numbers are noosed and snared by native fowlers, who
imitate the cry of the male to perfection. In doing this, the
fowler usually places one hand on his mouth and evolves the
sound, apparently, from the depths of his chest.
The Pea-Fowl is at times omnivorous, and land-shells, insects
of all kinds, worms, small lizards, and even tiny frogs may be
found in their crops, but by choice I think they feed on grain
and tender juicy shoots of grass and flower-buds, and I have
scores of times examined their stomachs without finding a
trace of anything else, although, had they been so minded,
animal food of all kinds abounded around them.
Where numerous, they do much damage to cultivation, and
being excessively fond of the buds of trees, are also very destructive
to young plantations.
Nothing can be more charming than Colonel Tickell's account
of this species :—
" Although Pea-Fowl are scattered over the forests of Central
and South-Central India, they are much more numerous in the
Trans-Gangetic provinces, and all along the Tarai. In the northerly
parts of Tirhoot, on the Nepal frontier, I have seen upwards
of fifty or sixty on the wing at a time, making for the
forests when roused up by our elephants. So common, indeed,
is this bird in the parts of India above enumerated, and so tame,
and so much do the natives dislike their being killed, that the
sportsman seldom molests them. Nevertheless, a Peachick is
by no means to be despised on the table, and an old bird, cock
or hen, furnishes grand stock for a tureen of good soup.
" T o the south of the Ganges, the Peacock confines himself
entirely to the wooded and hilly tracts, especially near cultivation,
feeding at daybreak and dusk, and withdrawing at other
times into the thickest jungle. In these countries—Rajmehal,
the Daman-i-koh, Beerbhoom, Midnapoor, Chota Nagpore, Singhbhoom,
and so on, south to Sambalpur and Cuttack—it is as
shy and wild as in Northern India it is tame and confiding ; in
fact, it is almost as difficult to stalk a deer as an old Peacock,
and in my earlier years in India many a weary hour of profitless
labour have I spent in endeavouring to creep within shot of
some splendid fellow whose glorious train excited my ornithological
cupidity. When followed in this manner, without a dog,
the Peacock keeps running before the sportsman, gliding and
slipping through apparently impervious thickets, occasionally
stopping in some patch of grass, from whence, with outstretched
neck, he regards his pursuer; and at length, if hard pressed,
rising heavily on wing and flying far into the densest covert,
leaving the baffled "gunner" to make the best of his way out
into the open, where the morning sun may dry his clothing
drenched with the chilling dew. Of an evening, one may
obtain a good shot or two by walking through the jungle skirting
a field of wheat, rice, or vetch, some fifty yards in advance
of two or three beaters, who are instructed to keep that distance
from you. Pea-Fowl thus invaded in the thick tangle of a
luxuriant crop run very little, and will rise just in advance of
the beaters, so as to give the sportsman a fair shot. A good
thing is valued the more for its scarcity. The Peacock is sufficiently
rare in the parts of India I am now referring to, to be
there prized accordingly ; and to see a magnificent fellow, with
his long train, coming over you, and then tumble him over—
head over heels, head over heels—with a thump on the ground
as he crashes through the boughs, is by no means an unpleasant
sight, to say nothing of its being very pretty ball practice.
" Pea-Fowl roost at night on high trees. The highest they
can get in the jungle they inhabit; but they select the lowest
branches for their perch. They are rather late in roosting ; I
have heard them flying up to their berths long after sunset, and
when the Night Jars had been for some time abroad, flitting
over the dusky jungle. The cock bird invariably leads the
way, rising suddenly from the brushwood near the roosting
tree, with a loud " kok-kok-kok-kok," and being presently followed
by his harem—four or five hens. If marked to their
roosting place, and if it be a clear moonlight night, they may
be easily shot, for, not knowing where to go, they will frequently
remain on the tree till fired at two or three times. When forced
to quit, they fly towards the ground, and pass the rest of the
night as well as they can, sometimes falling a prey to leopards
or wild cats. If there are hills in the jungle, the Pea-Fowl select
some prominent tree on the top, or half-way up. In the Nilgiris
and other mountain regions in Southern India, says
Jerdon, this bird ascends to the height of 6,000 feet above the
sea ; but in Sikhim (Darjeeling) and other parts of the Himalaya,
not higher than 2,000 feet. For my part I have never
seen Pea-Fowl at any elevation above the Tarai, though I have
rambled about the hills in Sikhim at Pankabari, and near
Bichiako, and Harrakwari, on the Nepal frontier. In the jungle
mahals and Singhbhoom, the Pea-Fowl roost on small hills,
but descend to the cultivated valleys to feed. On the loftier
hills of those regions, such as Dalma, Parasnath, and the
Chutia range above the Damoodur, I have never met with them.