446 



PEACOCK PEALE. 



two sorts the free stones, in which the flesh may be 

 easily separated from the stone, and the cling- 

 stone*, in which it is adherent. The nectarine is by 

 some considered a mere variety of the peach, differ- 

 ing only in its smooth skin ; and this fruit is like- 

 wise divided into cling and free-stones. The peach 

 is reproduced by planting the stones ; but it is 

 usual, when the stocks have attained a certain size, 

 to graft upon them any required variety. Forty 

 years are mentioned as the duration of the peach- 

 tree. It is recommended, when the fruit approaches 

 maturity, to strip oft" the surrounding leaves, in 

 order that it may be fully exposed to the rays of the 

 sun. 



PEACOCK (pavo, Lin., &c.) ; bill naked at the 

 base, convex above, thickened, bent down towards 

 the tip ; nostrils open ; cheeks partially denuded ; 

 fathers of the rump elongated, broad, capable of 

 being expanded like a fan, and ocellated; tail 

 wedge-shaped, consisting of eighteen feathers ; feet 

 furnished with four toes ; the tarsi with a conical 

 spur ; the head crested. 



P. cristatus, Lin., &c. ; crested, or common 

 peacock. To recite the numerous details of the 

 markings of this splendid bird would require a long 

 description, which, after all, would convey but a 

 faint idea of the original. There are, however, 

 few of our readers who are not sufficiently familiar 

 with the rich attire of the living specimen to dis- 

 pense with a minute enumeration of its changeable 

 hues. Like other domesticated birds, it exhibits 

 several varieties. The ordinary length of the 

 peacock, from the tip of the bill to that of the full- 

 grown tail, is about four feet. The female is rather 

 less ; and her train is not only very short, but desti- 

 tute of those beauties which ornament the male ; 

 her crest, too, is shorter, and her whole plumage 

 partakes of a cinereous hue ; her throat and neck are 

 green, and the spots on the side of the head are 

 larger than those of the male. The females of this 

 species, however, like those of some other birds, 

 have sometimes been known, when past breeding, 

 to assume the male attire. In a state of nature, the 

 pea-hen breeds once a year, and lays, it is alleged, 

 from twenty-five to thirty eggs, of a whitish hue, 

 speckled with dusky. In colder climates, and when 

 domesticated, the number of eggs seldom exceeds 

 five or six, and the hen sits from twenty-five to 

 thirty clays, according to the temperature of the coun- 

 try and season. When pleased or delighted, the 

 cock erects his tail, unfolds his feathers, and fre- 

 quently turns slowly round, as if to catch the sun- 

 beams in every direction, accompanying this move- 

 ment with a hollow murmuring. At other times, 

 his cry is very disagreeable, and often repeated, 

 especially before rain. Every year he sheds his 

 plumes ; and courts the most obscure retreats till 

 the returning spring renews his lustre. The young 

 acquire the perfect brilliancy of their plumage in 

 their third year ; but, in cold climates, they require 

 attention in rearing, and should be fed on grass, 

 meal, cheese, crumbs of bread, and insects, until 

 they are six or seven months old, when they will 

 eat wheat and various sorts of grain, like other 

 gallinaceous birds ; but the peacock is, in this 

 respect, extremely capricious, and there is hardly 

 any kind of food which it will not, at times, covet 

 and pursue. According to Aristotle, it lives about 

 twenty-five years ; but Willoughby and others al- 

 lege that it is capable of existing for near a century. 

 When full grown, it is not readily injured by cold. 

 Though long naturalized in Europe, it is of Eastern 

 origin, occurring in the greatest profusion in the 

 neighbourhood of the Ganges, and in the extensive 



coast of Malabar, the kingdom of Siam, and tlie 

 island of Java. As early as the days of Solomon, 

 they were imported into Judea by the fleets which 

 that monarch equipped on the Red sea. From India 

 they were brought into Asia Minor, and subsequently 

 into the isle of Samos, where they were formerly 

 much multiplied, and consecrated to Juno, but from 

 which they have now wholly disappeared. In 

 Greece, they still brought a high price in the time 

 of Pericles. They were introduced into Rome 

 towards the decline of the republic ; and the orator 

 Hortensius was, according to Pliny, the first who 

 had them presented at table, at a feast which he 

 gave to the college of augurs. The emperors took 

 a pride in collecting large dishes of the heads or 

 brains of peacocks, which seem to have had nothing 



which they were provided. In modern times, the 

 young birds only are reckoned fit for the table. 

 The Europeans have introduced them into Africa 

 and America. 



P. chinquis, Tern.; pavo licalcaratus, and pai-o 

 Thibetanus, Lin.; peacock pheasant, iris peacock, 

 Thibet peacock. These singular birds, which are 

 rather larger than a pheasant, and highly elegant 

 and beautiful, inhabit China and the mountains 

 which separate Hindostan from Thibet. According 

 to Sonnerat, they likewise occur in Malacca. The most 

 remarkable circumstance in their natural history is 

 that of the tarsi being armed with several spurs, 

 which vary in number from two to six, and fre- 

 quently the same bird has a different number on each 

 leg. Another curious fact is that the tail is com- 

 posed of two distinct ranges of long feathers, the 

 undermost being the true tail. These feathers are 

 capable of being erected, and displayed like a fan 

 when the bird is agitated, but at other times they 

 remain in a horizontal position. The plumage of 

 the female is less brilliant than that of the male, 

 and the tail shorter. In the natural state, this 

 species is not very wild, and it readily becomes 

 accustomed to confinement, and propagates with 

 facility. 



PEAK ; a name given to the upper corner of 

 those sails which are extended by a gaff, or by a 

 yard which crosses the mast obliquely, as the mizzen- 

 yard of a ship, the main-yard of a bylander, &c. 

 The upper extremity of these yards and gaffs is also 

 denominated the peak. 



PEAK CAVERN, in Derbyshire. See Cave. 



PEALE, CHARLES WILLSON, the founder of the 

 Philadelphia museum, was born of English parents, 

 at Chestertown, Maryland, in 1741 ; was appren- 

 ticed to a saddler at Annapolis, and married at an 

 early age. He successively carried on the trades of 

 saddler, harness-maker, silversmith, watchmaker, 

 and carver ; and afterwards, as a recreation from 

 his sedentary practice of portrait-painting, became 

 a sportsman, naturalist, and preserver of animals ; 

 made himself a violin and guitar ; invented and 

 executed a variety of machines ; and was the first 

 dentist in America that made sets of enamel teeth. 

 At the age of twenty-six, he was first excited to 

 become a painter by the desire of surpassing the 

 wretched things which he happened to meet with. 

 At this time, Hesselius, a portrait-painter from the 

 school of Sir Godfrey Kneller, was living near Anna- 

 polis. Mr Pcale, selecting the handsomest saddle 

 his shop afforded, as a present to the artist, intro- 

 duced himself, and solicited the favour of seeing, 

 for the first time, the mysterious operations of 

 painting. Mr Hesselius gave him essential instruc^ 

 tion, and he afterwards received similar services 

 from Mr Copley, on a visit to Boston. Soon after. 



plains of India, particularly in Guzerat, Cambay, the I by the aid of his friends, he went to England, and 



