Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/250

Rh great adjacent islands: and these have been ascertained to be specifically identical with our domestic races. Colonel Sykes describes the species as abundant in the dense woods of the Ghauts; it is readily domesticated, and many Hindoo temples in the Deccan, as he informs us, have considerable flocks of them.

Colonel Williamson also, in his account of Peacock-shooting, states that he had seen about the passes in the Jungletery District, surprising numbers of wild Pea-fowl. He speaks with admiration of the whole woods being covered with their beautiful plumage, to which the rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. Small patches of plain among the long grass, most of them cultivated, and with mustard then in bloom, which induced the birds to feed, increased the beauty of the scene. "I speak within bounds," observes the Colonel, "when I assert that there could not be less than twelve or fifteen hundred Pea-fowls, of various sizes, within sight of the spot where I stood for near an hour."

From the same respectable authority we learn that it is easy to get a shot at these fine birds in the jungle, but where they flock together, as they do to the number of forty or fifty, there is greater difficulty. Then they are not easily flushed, and run very fast; so fast, indeed, that the Colonel doubts whether a slow spaniel could make them take wing. Their flight is heavy and strong, generally within an easy shot; if merely winged, they frequently escape by swiftness of foot. They roost on high trees, into which they fly towards dusk.

The flesh of the Peacock, when not old, is