The Great Peacock 



not a sign of jealousy in regard to the other 

 suitors, each does his utmost to enter the en- 

 closure. Tiring of their vain attempts, they 

 fly away and join the whirling throng of 

 dancers. Some, giving up all hope, escape 

 through the open window; fresh arrivals take 

 their places; and, on the top of the cage, un- 

 til ten o'clock in the evening, attempts to ap- 

 proach are incessantly renewed, soon to be 

 abandoned and as soon resumed. 



Every evening the cage is moved to a dif- 

 ferent place. I put it on the north side and 

 the south, on the ground-floor and the first 

 floor, in the right wing and fifty yards away 

 in the left, in the open air or hidden in a dis- 

 tant room. All these sudden displacements, 

 contrived if possible to put the seekers off the 

 scent, do not trouble the Moths in the least. 

 I waste my time and Ingenuity in trying to de- 

 ceive them. 



Recollection of places plays no part here. 

 Yesterday, for instance, the female was 

 installed In a certain room. The feathered 

 males came fluttering thither for a couple of 

 hours; several even spent the night there. 

 Next day, at sunset, when I move the cage, all 

 are out of doors. Ephemeral though they be, 



267 



