932 AH. OCT. 18th 1525 to OCT. 8th 1586 AD. 493
(j. Fauna of Hindustan : Birds.)'
1 The peacock (Ar. tails) is one. It is a beautifully coloured and splendid animal. Its form (auddm) is not equal to its colouring and beauty. Its body may be as large as the crane's (tttrna) but it is not so tall. On the head of both cock and hen are 20 to },0 feathers rising some 2 er 3 -inches high. The hen has neither colour nor beauty. The head of the cock has an iridescent collar {tauq silsani) ; its neck is of a beautiful blue ; below the neck, its back is painted in yellow, parrot-green, blue and violet colours. The flowers2 on its back are much the smaller ; below the back as far as the tail-tips are [larger] flowers painted in the same colours. The tail of some peacocks grows to the length of a man's extended arms.3 It has a small tail under its flowered feathers, like the tail of other birds ; this ordinary tail and its primaries4 are red. It is in Bajaur and Sawad and below them : it is not in Kunur [KQnur] and the Lamghanat or any place above them. Its flight is feebler than the pheasant's {qirghawal) ; it cannot do more than make one or two short flights.5 On account of its feeble flight, it frequents the hills or jungles, which is curious, since jackals abound in the jungles it frequents. What damage might these jackals not do to birds that trail from jungle to jungle, tails as long as a man's stretch (qfdach) ! Hindustanis call the peacock mor. Its flesh is lawful food, according to the doctrine of Imam Abu Hanlfa ; it is like that of the partridge and not unsavoury, but is eaten with instinctive aversion, in the way camel-flesh is.
The parrot (H. tuft) is another. This also is in Bajaur and countries lower down. It comes into Nlngnahar and the
1 The notes to this section are restricted to what serves to identify the birds Babur mentions, though temptation is great to add something to this from the mass of interesting circumstance scattered in the many writings of observers and lovers of birds. I have thought it useful to indicate to what language a bird's name belongs.
' Persian, gul; English, eyes.
3 qiilach (Zenker, p. 720); Pers. trs. (217 f. 192^) yak qad-i-adm ; de Courteille, brasse (fathom). These three are expressions of the measure from finger-tip to finger-tip of a man's extended arms, which should be his height, a fathom (6 feet).
4 qanat, of which here "primaries" appears to be the correct rendering, since Jerdon says (ii, 506) of the bird that its " wings are striated black and white, primaries and tail deep chestnut ".
5 The qirghawal, which is of the pheasant species, when pursued, will take several flights immediately after each other, though none long ; peacocks, it seems, soon get tired and take to running (Erskine).
