THE GREAT PEACOCK 193 



to all that occurred. No odour was emitted that was 

 perceptible to the most sensitive nostrils of the house- 

 hold ; no sound that the keenest ears of the household 

 could perceive. Motionless, recollected, she waited. 



The males, by twos, by threes and more, fluttered upon 

 the dome of the cover, scouring over it quickly in all 

 directions, beating it continually with the ends of their 

 wings. There were no conflicts between rivals. Each 

 did his best to penetrate the enclosure, without betraying 

 any sign of jealousy of the others. Tiring of their fruitless 

 attempts, they would fly away and join the dance of the 

 gyrating crowd. Some, in despair, would escape by the 

 open window : new-comers would replace them : and 

 until ten o'clock or thereabouts the wire dome of the 

 cover would be the scene of continual attempts at 

 approach, incessantly commencing, quickly wearying, 

 quickly resumed. 



Every night the position of the cage was changed. 

 I placed it north of the house and south ; on the 

 ground-floor and the first floor ; in the right wing of 

 the house, or fifty yards away in the left wing; in the 

 open air, or hidden in some distant room. All these 

 sudden removals, devised to put the seekers off the 

 scent, troubled them not at all. My time and my pains 

 were wasted, so far as deceiving them was concerned. 



The memory of places has no part in the finding of 

 the female. For instance, the day before the cage was 

 installed in a certain room. The males visited the room 

 and fluttered about the cage for a couple of hours, and 

 some even passed the night there. On the following 

 day, at sunset, when I moved the cage, all were out of 

 doors. Although their lives are so ephemeral, the 



U 



