G A L L I N I D /E. 



579 



the bill and irides yellow. The length of the male is 

 about nine and twenty inches. The female is much 

 duller in the plumage, and is marked over the eyes 

 by a streak of short black feathers. 



REEVES'S PHEASANT (P. Reevesii). This is like- 

 wise from China, and was unknown in England, at 

 least in the living state, until the establishment of 

 gardens for the reception of animals by the Zoological 

 Society of London. A specimen, sent to the garden 

 by Mr. John Reeves of Canton, arrived in safety, but 

 another one died by the way. The bird is from the 

 north of China. Is is a splendid species, the middle 

 feathers of the tail in the male bird measuring between 

 five and six feet in length. It is Phasianus vencratus 

 of Temminck. 



There are numerous other pheasants, most of them 

 finely coloured, of which specimens have been brought 

 from China, especially from the northern parts of that 

 country. The north of China seems indeed to be 

 remarkably well adapted as a pasture for pheasants ; 

 for the species or varieties which have been obtained 

 from thence are larger and finer in their plumage 

 than those of the south of China, or even farther to 

 the south. And it is highly probable that in this 

 grand head-quarter of the genus, there still exist 

 many species which are unknown to Europeans. 



The north of China has a very severe winter, as 

 cold as it i? in the middle latitudes of Sweden, which 

 is considerably more rigorous than it is in the extreme 

 north of the British islands, while the heat in summer 

 is as great as in northern Africa, near the borders of 

 tho desert. So great a range of temperature in the 

 course of the year must be very trying to the consti- 

 tutions of the wild animals ; and those which can 

 bear such alternations of heat and cold must be re- 

 jarded as especially hardy. This is an important 

 consideration in the natural history of the finer spe- 

 cies of pheasants, because it furnishes the most con- 

 clusive proofs that those most elegant and highly 

 ornamental birds could be introduced without diffi- 

 culty into any part of the British islands, at least 

 without the least chance of injury from the winter. 

 This is a consideration well worthy the attention of 

 those who wish to combine beauty with usefulness in 

 the stocking of their parks ; but it is one upon which 

 our limits prevent us from enlarging further, and so 

 we must pass on to another genus of the family. 



PAVO the peacock. This is a genus which has 

 been long known and generally admired, and it is, in 

 some respects, one of the most beautiful of birds. 

 The generic characters are : the bill naked at the 

 base, convex in the upper part, thickened, and bent 

 downwards at the tip ; the nostrils open ; the cheeks 

 partially bare of feathers ; the feathers of the rump 

 elongated, broad, capable of being spread out like a 

 large fan, and marked with ocellated spots of beautiful 

 form and most brilliant colours ; the true tail is wedge- 

 shaped, and consists of eighteen feathers, the exfend- 

 ing of which assists greatly in producing the regular 

 fan formed by the feathers of the rump ; the head is 

 furnished with a crest ; the feet have four toes each ; 

 and the tarsi are furnished with conical spots. 



COMMON PEACOCK (P. cristatus). The crest on 

 the head is compressed laterally. The body of the 

 male is golden green, glossed with bronze reflections ; 

 and the wing-coverts green gold, glossed with bronze 

 and blue, the colours in all these parts being remark- 

 able for the beauty of their iridescent play of different 

 eoiours. The under parts of the body are dusky, but 



clouded and relieved with green gold. On each side 

 of the head there are two stripes of white. The 

 upper tail-coverts, or rump-feathers formerly alluded 

 to, are very long, and adorned with various colours 

 and beautiful eyes and arches. Indeed there is not a 

 flower in the garden, a metal, a gem, or a tint in the 

 rainbow, which does not find its rival in one part or 

 other of the peacock. The details of the markings 

 could not be enumerated, except in a very lengthened 

 description ; and this description, however it might 

 be laboured, would convey but a very faint idea of 

 the splendour of the original. Some of the pheasants, 

 which we noticed in enumerating the leading species 

 of the last genus, are tame in words compared with 

 what they are to the eye ; and therefore it would be 

 vain to hope, by means of words, to convey any idea 

 of the peacock. Perhaps the most expressive com- 

 )liment which has been paid to this bird is a mytho- 

 ogical one ; the ancient fabulists having deemed the 

 seacock the only animal fit for being yoked to the 

 jar of the queen of heaven. But splendid as this bird 

 is, much description is not necessary ; for it is so 

 common and so hardy, that, in almost any part of the 

 British islands, only a very short journey is necessary 

 to get a sight of it. 



The ordinary length of the full-grown peacock, 

 from the tip of the bill to the extremity of the tail, 

 when in the finest condition, is about four feet. The 

 female is considerably less ; and her train is not only 

 very short, but destitute of those resplendent beauties 

 which ornament the male ; her crest too is much 

 shorter, and her whole plumage partakes of a sober 

 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 the pheasant and of some other birds, have 

 occasionally been known to assume the male attire. 



As is the case with most birds in a state of domes- 

 tication, peacocks often exhibit considerable variety 

 in their colours. Some, for instance, have the wings 

 crossed with small striae ; others have the wings, 

 cheeks, throat, and anterior parts of the belly, and 

 also the wing-coverts white; and specimens in a state 

 of perfect albinoism have occurred, in which scarcely 

 one departure from white could be discerned in the 

 whole bird, except that the white on the eye-spots 

 of the tail seemed a little duller than in the other 

 parts of the same feathers. 



From the number of peacocks which are still found 

 in India, especially in the richly wooded dells of the 

 western ghauts, not a doubt can be entertained of 

 India being the native country of these splendid birds. 

 Some of the places which they inhabit there are pe- 

 culiar and picturesque in a very high degree. There 

 are often circular valleys, or as one might almost call 

 them cauldrons, so narrow that the eye of one stand- 

 ing on the brink can overlook their whole extent, so 

 deep and so steep in the sides that it is impossible to 

 descend into them, and with the outlet so rough and 

 so choked with vegetation that a passage that way is 

 equally difficult. In those singular places, peacocks 

 may be often seen in swarms ; and the brilliancy of 

 their colours adds greatly to the other characters of 

 those curious places. Of course they feed on the 

 ground, in the openings between the trees ; but the 

 places of their repose, both when resting for the day 

 and for sleeping in the night, are upon the topmost 

 branches, where they make a very brilliant appear- 

 ance. 



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