14 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



quite as much for eating as for ornamental 

 purposes, though one Roman poet says how 

 hard-hearted one must be to kill such a beauti- 

 ful creature. The real wild home of the pea- 

 cock is India, where it is still common in many 

 places. You can get a good idea of the wild 

 peacock's appearance and habits from our 

 tame birds, for tame pea-fowl still look just 

 like wild ones except the few that happen to 

 be white or otherwise unusually coloured 

 and they are usually allowed to roam about 

 and live naturally. Peacocks were first seen 

 by Europeans when Alexander the Great 

 invaded India, and he was so delighted with 

 them that he made an order that none should 

 be killed. Not long afterwards they were 

 brought to Greece, and were first kept in 

 Athens, which was the great city for all that 

 was new, beautiful, and strange. The owner 

 of the peacocks was so bothered by people 

 asking to see his wonderful birds that he had 

 to appoint a special day for seeing them, and 

 this is not surprising, for though we are so used 

 to peacocks that they are too often looked 

 down upon and made fun of nowadays, they 

 are really the most wonderful and splendid 



