THE BIRD OF JUNO 



plumage of the two sexes ; the gorgeously clad male 

 contrasts with the dowdily hued female ; and with this 

 difference we regret to have to associate polygamy. A 

 polygamist has to be a good fighter, so accordingly we 

 find that the peacock, like his immediate relatives the 

 pheasant and the barn-door fowl, is armed with trench- 

 ant spurs upon the legs. The peacock being a swag- 

 gerer, and a handsome swaggerer, has achieved for him- 

 self a place in the bird world which is rather above his 

 deserts. The author of The Thistle and the Rose repre- 

 sents dame Nature as ordering the eagle, crowned by 

 her king of fowls, to be 



" Als just to awppis and owlis, 

 As unto Pacokkis, papingais, or crennis." 



This association was evidently considered to be due to 

 the bird imported by Solomon, and the favourite of 

 Juno. In modern times the peacock has lost in repute ; 

 he has even been falsely epitheted in order to convey 

 greater contempt ; " a turned-up nosed peacock " is 

 the unornithological remark to which we refer. To 

 Gilbert White the screech of the peacock was " grating 

 and shocking to the ear." " The yelling of cats," he 

 adds, " and the braying of an ass are not more disgust- 

 ful." To our mind the call of the peacock in the dis- 

 tance is far from unpleasant. Gilbert White made, 

 apparently for the first time, an interesting observation 

 upon the structure of this bird. He noted that the 

 train of the peacock, which stands stiffly radiating out- 

 wards from the body in periods of excitement, was not 

 produced by a lengthening of the true tail feathers 

 the rectrices, as their technical name runs but from 

 the feathers covering these above, the upper tail coverts 

 in fact. It is inaccurate, therefore, to speak of the pea- 

 cock's tail, if, that is to say, a comparison is implied 

 with the tail of say a jackdaw. In long-tailed birds it 



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