CHAPTER XXII. 



* ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 



THE PEA-FOWL. 



Although the pea-fowl is well known as a bird of fine 

 feathers, few persons are acquainted with its natural his- 

 tory and real merits. It is a good table fowl, and as 

 easily reared as the turkey; still it is rarely seen on a farm 

 or country place, and then only as an ornament. This 

 bird is a native of Asia, from whence have come nearly 

 all our gallinaceous fowls, the turkey excepted. In the 

 time of Solomon, it was an article of merchandise, and 

 was brought with ivory and apes from Tarshish to Judea. 

 One species of pea-fowl was found by an English 

 traveler, Colonel Sykes, abounding in a part of India, 

 where large flocks were kept about the native temples. 

 Another Eastern traveler relates that from 1,200 to 1,500 

 were seen by him in the passes of the mountain, within 

 sight at one time; and he speaks in extravagant terms of 

 the brilliancy of their plumage. There are three distinct 

 genera, which include several species and varieties, such 

 as the Crested, the Black-shouldered, the Javan, the 

 Japan, the Iris, the Thibet, the Malay, etc. All the 

 domesticated sorts are surpassed by the wild ones in 

 beauty. Culver says of the pea-fowl: "We find in its 

 incomparable robe, united, all the brilliant colors which 

 we admire separately in other birds; we find all that 

 glistens in the rainbow, that sparkles in the mine, the 

 azure and golden tints of the heavens, and the emerald 

 of the field.'' White, the naturalist, found that the 

 feathers of the train do not belong to the tail, but that 

 they grow upon the back, the real tail feathers being 

 (235) 



