408 THE FTATHERED TRIBE?. 



tlock of entirely the common sort ; also in a brood of comniou and pied, given by 

 Lady Chatham to Mr. Thoroton ; and in both cases to the extinction of the previously 

 existing breed." The common peacock varies in its plumage accidentally. Thus there 

 are pied varieties, and one entirel}' white. 



BufFon says : "The brilliant plumes of the peacocks, which surpass in beauty the 

 fairest flowers, wither like them, and fall with each succeeding year. The iseacock, then, 

 as if sensible and ashamed of his loss, fears to be seen in this humiliating state, and seeks 

 out the most gloomy retreats in which to conceal himself from every eye, until returning 

 spring restores him to his accustomed splendour, and brings him back upon the scene, to 

 receive the homage which his beauty inspires. It is pretended that, in reality, he enjoys 

 admiration, and that the true method to engage him to display his fine plumage, is to 

 bestow attention and praise upon him ; and that, on the contrary, when he is neglected, 

 he folds up his treasures, and withdraws them from the view of those who know not how 

 to appreciate them." 



THE WHITE PEACOCK. 



The name of a u-hiti' peacock suggests a similar idea to that which was formerly 

 associated with the name of a blacl- swan ; yet each of these birds has an actual existence. 

 The white peacock, however, is not, as some have supposed, a bird of the Arctic regions. 

 Animals, it is true, are found in those countries, whose principal livery is a pure white, 

 and this colour is spread in greater abundance there, over the plumage of birds, than 

 elsewhere. But the greater portion of the quadrupeds and birds of those climates 

 preserve this white livery only during the winter season. ' There are, in fact, few 

 quadrupeds that are constantly or wholly white, and the case is pretty nearly the same 

 with birds. Most of them change their livery at the approach of summer. The species 

 of laqopus are white in winter only, and even in that season they preserve their tail, 

 composed of black quills. 



The declaration cannot, therefore, be established, though made by some men of note, 

 that the white peacocks are aboriginals of Sweden. Were it otherwise, it might be 

 expected that these birds would still inhabit that country, or, at all events, that they 

 once lived there in freedom. But we are without evidence of any such fact : while 

 Linnceus states that the climate of Sweden is by no means suitable to the peacocks, and 

 makes no exception in favour of the white variety. M. Temmiuck, also, assures us that 

 even the white peacocks are more rare there than in the menageries of Holland. 



Were any further evidence necessary, that of Sonnini would be conclusive. " The race 

 of white peacocks," he says, "is not essentially original to the north; for in 1783 a 

 pair of common peacocks produced, at Gentilli, near Paris, four .young ones, two of 

 which preserved the plumage of the parents, and two were entirely white." Nevertheless, 

 Mauduyt, who relates this fact, observes that there was no white peacock in the village, 

 nor in the environs. Tlie same thing occurred, a few years before, on an estate equally 

 near Paris. It thus appears that the whiteness of the plumage of the peacock is a 

 simple accidental variety, which one cannot regard as forming a permanent race ; and, 

 still further, that these white peacocks are very rare. 



Althouo-h the plumage of the white peacock is altugetlicr of this colour, tlie long 

 plumes of the train do' yet retain, at their extremities, some vestiges of the brilliant 

 mirrors peculiar to the species ; and all the rest of their livery carries tlie impression of 

 the diti'erent colours, though feebly sketched with a white moro or less pure. The 

 variety of the white peacocks always bear a liigher price than (lie others. They are 

 cxceedino-lv handsome, and [irolKce nii Mibnir.ilili' cH'ccI in flu' niidst of ,i fl.i(l< df i-icldy- 

 deporatcd peacocks. 



