74 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



moment when he was just about to strike it, 

 a kind of joke which the pigeon probably did 

 not think very amusing. 



Another solemn bird I have seen play a 

 trick which looked very like a practical joke, 

 though it might have been in earnest the 

 peacock. At the time they had several 

 peafowl, cocks and hens, loose in Regent's 

 Park, and one day when a peacock was spread- 

 ing out his train and doing his best to display 

 his fine feathers before the ladies, another 

 peacock crept behind him and gave him a 

 fearful kick in the middle of the fan, which, 

 of course, was folded up in a hurry. As 

 peacocks, although they are not timid birds, 

 very seldom fight, it is quite possible this 

 was only a bit of fun ; very unbecoming fun, 

 too, for so dignified a bird as the peacock 

 generally is. 



One would naturally expect young birds 

 to be more playful than old ones, and they 

 certainly are so sometimes. The sports of 

 pigeons and geese, and the tricks of cockatoos 

 and crows, are the fun of grown-up birds, 

 but I have seen some birds play when they 

 were young, and become quite sober when they 



