Class II. POULTRY, &c. 279 



diftinguifhed him from all the princes of his time. 

 jEIian * relates, that they were brought into Greece 

 from fome barbarous country ; and that they were 

 held in fuch high efteem, that a male and female 

 were valued at Athens at 1000 drachma, or 32/. 

 Ss. lod. Their next Hep might be to Samos-, 

 where they were preferved about the temple oijuno^ 

 being the birds facred to the goddefsf: and Gellius 

 in his no5ies Attic^e^ c. 16. commends the excellen- 

 cy of the Samian peacocks. It is therefore probable 

 that they were brought here originally for the 

 purpofes of fuperftition, and afterwards cultivated 

 for the ufes of luxury. We are alfo told, when 

 Alexander was in India J, he found vaft numbers of 

 wild ones on the banks of the Hyarotis^ and was 

 fo (truck with their beauty, as to appoint a fevere 

 punifhment on any perfon that killed them. 



Peacocks' crefts, in antient times, were amons 

 the ornaments of the Kings of England, Ernald de 

 Aclent fined to King John in a hundred and forty 

 palfries, with fackbuts, lorains, gilt fpurs and 

 peacocks' crefts, fuch as would be for his credit. 

 Maddox Antiq^. Exch .1. 273. 



Our common poultry came originally from Fer- Poultry. 

 fia and India, Ariftophanes \\ calls the cock Tn^amog 

 opvir^, the Ferfian bird j and tells us, it enjoyed 



* Julian de nat. an. lib. v. 21. 



f Athenceus. lib. xiv. p. 655. 



t ^ Curtius, lib. ix. || J-ves, tin, 483. 



that 



