of Great Britain; but if I may presume to guess at the tastes of the royal owner, more pleasure is derived from the sight of her living models than from the inanimate splendors of this glittering toy, although it does so far

That the peacock should, in all times, have been admired for its singular beauty is not surprising. When it moves along in state with its wings lowered to the ground and its tail spread, the rays of the sun glancing upon its gorgeous plumes, iridiscent with metallic effulgence, the eye of every beholder is arrested, and all gaze with admiration on the glorious spectacle. When we talk of the peacock spreading its tail, we use popular language. The gem-adorned plumes, with their loose silken barbs, are not the tail, but the tail coverts. The tail is beneath these, and hidden by them, and consists of rather short, stiff rust-colored feathers, which serve as a support to the train.

I would here willingly give an account of the habits and manners of the wild pea fowls in the jungles of India, parallel to that of the wild turkey of the American forests, but no Wilson, no Audubon, no Bonaparte, has written their history, and, for myself, I have never seen one in its native woods. I might, indeed, transcribe much respecting pea-fowl shooting from the works of various writers, sportsmen in India; but from all this we gain no positive information. The reader must, therefore, pardon me for the meagre history of the wild bird. However, what it is in captivity in our country, that it is in the forests of India, domestication having little influenced its nature.

There can be little doubt that the splendor of this bird first attracted the notice of the ancients, yet in luxurious Rome, its beauty was not its safeguard; on

the contrary, it was slaughtered in very wantonness, for the sake of a few parts only deemed worthy of being introduced as small items in the dishes of royal lunatics or noble madmen. The sneer of Martial must, in his day, have been biting; he saw the peacock in its glory, and then beheld it murdered for the sake of its brains. Well might he say

"Oft as the bird his gem-starred plumes displays
In admiration dost thou stop to gaze,

And canst thou then, hard-hearted, take its life,
And coolly give it to your hireling's knife."

Of the favorite dishes of the Emperor Vitellius, called the buckler of Minerva, was prepared with the livers of a choice fish, the scarus, (Scarus creticus,) the tongues of flamingos, and the brains of peacocks. The bird figured also in the feasts of Hortensius and other sensualists.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

THE pea fowl is extensively spread in a wild state, in India and the Indian Islands. It is abundant in the dense woods of the Ghauts, and is readily domesticated, many of the Hindoo temples in the Dukhun, as Colonel Sykes informs us, having considerable flocks of them. On comparing specimens of the wild bird with the domesticated pea fowl of our country, he found no difference in any respect. "Irides intense red-brown," or rather, he should say, blood-red.

The wild pea fowl associates in numbers, and where a favorite feeding ground invites them, hundreds sometimes collect together, but they are very wary, and run with extreme velocity.

Colonel Williamson, in his account of peacock shooting, states that he has seen them in astonishing numbers about the passes in the jungletery district. Whole woods were covered with their beautiful plumage, to which the rising sun imparted additional brilliancy; he states that small patches scattered about, cultivated with mustard which was then in bloom, induced the birds to collect there for the sake

of feeding on the plant, and he speaks of the beauty of the scene as enchanting, and so indeed it must have been; for he adds, "I speak within bounds 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."

The common peacock was, till lately supposed to he the only species of its genus; but both preserved and living specimens of the Aldrovandine pea fowl, which, for a long while, was supposed fabulous, have been recently introduced into England. But there is also a third sort, which, on account of the confusion of synonymes, has not received from naturalists the attention it deserves. The difficulty has been increased by the conversion of "Japan" into "japanned" by some writers. Japonensis, or Japonicus, are not, however, synonymous with Javanensis nor Javanicus; Java and Japan are countries separated by many hundreds of miles of distance, even by many degrees of latitude and longitude. Yet Sir W. Jardine, in the "Naturalist's Library" gives the Pavo javanensis as the same as the Japan peacock. His figure represents the Java bird, as also does that in Griffith's edition of Cuvier's "Animal Kingdom," although the title "Japan Peacock" is added to it. It is possible that both species may be indigenous in one or both of these respective countries, in which case, the specific names are not wrong, but only confused.

The Japan peacock is somewhat less in size than the common, the white patches of naked skin on the cheeks are smaller, the wings are blue-black, edged with metallic-green instead of being mottled like tortoise shell, the imbricated feathers on the back are smaller and less conspicuous, and the whole coloring of the bird is of a darker tone. The hen, on the contrary, is much lighter than the common sort, with a tendency to spangled, perhaps even ocellated, plumage all over her body, and she has scarcely any glistening feathers on the neck; her size is also inferior, and her proportions more slender.

SYNONYMES.-Pavo cristatus, of Naturalists; Mohr, of the Mahrattas ; Paon, of the French; Pavon, Pavo real, of the Spaniards; Pfau, Pfauhahn, of the Germans; Peacock, of the English and Anglo-Ameri

cans.

The pea fowl is too well known to require a detailed description. There are two varieties of this species, the "pied" and the "white." The first has irregular patches of white about it, like the pied Guinea fowl, the remainder of the plumage resembling the original sort. The white have the ocellated spots on the tail faintly visible. These last are tender, and are much prized by those who prefer rarity to real beauty. They are occasionally produced by birds of the common kind, in cases where no intercourse with other white birds can have taken place. In one instance, in the same

brood, whose parents were both of the usual colors, there were two of the common sort, one white cock, and one white hen.

As might be expected of a bird that has been reared in captivity for several thousand years, the pea fowl has been rendered very tame, and capable of considerable attachment to man in almost every country in the globe. By regular feeding, it has easily been made to take its place as a liveried attendant at the front door, in order to show himself, and await with great punctuality, for his meals. Indeed, so charming is the perfect combination of grace and splendor, displayed by these most lovely creatures, so excellent is their flesh, so hardy are they in their adult state, that, were it not for certain inconveniences, attendant upon keeping them, and also, perhaps, for the indifference with which everything not rare is apt to be regarded by us, they would be sought after as never-tiring objects wherewith to gratify the sense of sight. "Thus does

curiosity, in minds essentially vulgar, predominate over the lasting sense of beauty; and the glories of the visible heavens, no less than the splendors of the peacock, are passed with indifference by unreflecting millions, because both are every-day sights."

The natural disposition of the peacock is selfish and gluttenous, and it is only by pampering this weakness that he can be persuaded into obedience and attachment. He is vain, and at the same time ungallant. He is far from manifesting the politeness and attention which the common cock shows towards his mates. The peacock will greedily snatch from the mouth of his hens those tit-bits and delicate morsels which the cock would either share with his favorites, or yield to them entirely. The peahen, in return, cares less for her lord and master, and is more independent of him, when once her amorous inclinations have been indulged. She then regards the display of his tail, his puffings and struttings, and all the rattling of his