THEPBACOCK. 85 



THE PEACOCK. {Pavo cristatus.) 



The Gallinaceous birds (Rasores) fbrm the fourth rrdtT, 

 whioh includes many of the domestic fowls, and others une- 

 ful to man. The Peacock is the most celebrated of the 

 order, the beauty of its plumage having rendered it a 

 favourite in all ages of the world ; indeed, there is scarcely 

 anything in nature that can vie with the transcendent lustre 

 of the Peacock's feathers. The changing glory of his neck 

 eclipses the deep azure of ultramarine; and at the least 

 evolution, it assumes the green tint of the emerald, and the 

 purple hue of the amethyst. His head, which is small and 

 finely shaped, has several curious stripes of white and black 

 •ound the eyes, and is surmounted by an elegant plume, or 

 tuft of feathers, each of which is composed of a slender 

 stem and a small tuft at the top. Displayed with conscious 

 pride, and exposed under a variety of angles to the reflec- 

 tions of versatile light, the broad and variegated disks of 

 his tail, of which the neck, head, and breast of the bird 

 become the centre, claims our well merited admiration By 

 an extraordinary mixture of the brightest colours, it displays 

 at once the richness of gold, and the paler tints of silvci, 

 fringed with bronze-coloured edges, and sun-ounding eyt- 

 like spots of dark brown and sapphire. The female does 

 not share in the beauty of the cock, and her feathers arc 

 generally of a light brown. She lays only a few eggs at a 

 lime, and these at a distance of iifinally throe or four day? 



