for rheumatic
affections.--_Asiat. Res._ ch. xv. p. 184.]

[Footnote 5: _Itinerarius_ FRATRIS ODORICI, de Foro Julii de
Portu-vahonis, &c.--HAKLUYT, vol. ii. p. 39.]

[Illustration: THE HORNBILL.]

The Singhalese have a belief that the hornbill never resorts to the
water to drink; but that it subsists exclusively by what it catches in
its prodigious bill while 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 themselves on the
branches of the surrounding trees. Nothing 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 number 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
have not been able to identify the species which bears this name; but it
utters a cry resembling the word _matkiang!_ which in Singhalese means,
"I _will_ complain!" This they believe is addressed by the bird to the
rising sun, imploring redress for its wrongs. The _avitchia_ is
described as somewhat less than a crow, the colours of its plumage being
green, mingled with red.

But of all, the most astonishing in point of multitude, as well as the
most interesting from their endless variet