ORNAMENTAL FOWL. 73 



Hope, whither it had been sent from Macao. It was subsequently 

 observed by Dr. Hosefield, in Java, as well as by Sir Stampford 

 Raffles, in Sumatra. There are some living specimens in the 

 London Zoological Society's collection. We have had some at 

 our Zoological Gardens, in Dublin, and I was in possession of some 

 myself : they are now not very rare. 



The principal distinguishing characters of the peacocks, as a 

 genus, consist in the peculiar crest upon their heads, and the ex- 

 cessive elongation of their tail coverts and tail feathers, which 

 are capable of being elevated and expanded, and in this position, 

 form one of the most beautiful objects in creation. The bill is of 

 moderate size, slightly curved, with open nostrils, placed near its 

 base ; the head is almost wholly feathered ; the legs are armed 

 with strong, conical spurs ; the hind toe touches the ground only 

 with its claw ; and the wings are short and concave, the sixth 

 quill feather being the longest of the series. In the species now 

 under consideration, the prevailing tints are blue and green, 

 varying in intensity, and mutually changing into each other, as 

 the light falls more or less directly upon them. In size and pro- 

 portions, the two birds are nearly similar ; but the crest of the 

 present species is twice as long as that of the other : and the 

 feathers of which it is composed, are regularly barbed from the 

 base upwards, in the adult bird, and of equal breadth throughout ; 

 the head and crest are interchangeably blue and green; a naked 

 space on the cheeks, including the eyes and ears, is coloured of 

 a light yellow behind, and bluish-green towards its fore-part ; the 

 feathers of the neck and breast, which are broad, short, rounded, 

 and imbricated, like the scales of a fish, are, at their base, of the 

 same brilliant hue as the head, and have a broad, lighter, some- 

 what metallic margin ; those of the cock have still more of the 

 metallic lustre ; the wing coverts are of the general hue, with a 

 deeper tinge of blue ; the primary quill feathers are light chesnut ; 

 the tail feathers and their coverts are of a splendid metallic brown, 

 changing into green ; their barbs are extremely long, loose, silky, 

 and somewhat decomposed, and the latter are almost all termi- 

 nated by similar ocellated spots, to those which mark the tail of 

 the common species, and of nearly the same size. In it they are 

 of a beautiful deep purple, in the centre, which is about the size 

 of a shilling; this is surrounded by a band of green, becoming 

 narrow behind, but widening in front, and filling up a kind of 

 notch that occurs in the blue: then comes a broad, brownish 

 band ; and, lastly, a narrow, black ring, edged with chesnut, all 

 beautifully metallic, or rather presenting the hues of various 



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