74 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



on his throne was ever so gorgeously arrayed, 

 not even " Solomon in all his glory." 



Many persons regard the long plumes of 

 the peacock as its tail, and in common lan- 

 guage it is said "to spread its tail" This, 

 however, is incorrect ; the true tail, which con- 

 sists of short stiff feathers of a rusty colour, 

 is underneath these plumes, and serves to sup- 

 port them : it may he seen when the plumes 

 are expanded. The plumes are really the 

 tail coverts, and arise from the lower part of 

 the hack, where the skin is furnished with a 

 strong muscular expansion in order to raise 

 them at pleasure. The structure of these 

 plumes and the ever-varying colours of the 

 loose barhs that fringe them, have been often 

 admired : the shaft is slender, tapering, and 

 elastic, and is fringed on each side with long 

 loose silky barbs, of metaUic irridescence, glit- 

 tering now green, now golden, as the light 

 falls at different angles upon them. The 

 shaft is terminated by an ocellated disc, a 

 centre of purple, deep and intense, is en- 

 circled by rich emerald green, around which 

 runs a broad expanse of gleaming bronze, 

 with a narrow margin of golden green, the 

 whole being fringed with waving threads of 



