350 PEA FOWL. 



we now and then see a favourite bird, with neck of lapis lazuli, 

 back of emerald, wings of tortoise-shell, and tail outshining the 

 rainbow, in some old-fashioned farm-yard, the pet of his mis- 

 tress, who is perhaps the most successful Poultry-woman in the 

 neighbourhood, and whose stock shows no sign of any mur- 

 derous thinning. The Peahen, who, when she has Eggs or 

 young, seems really a more guilty party, is not in general even 

 suspected. So true is it that one man may steal a horse, while 

 another must not look over the hedge. 



The Hen does not lay till her third summer ; but she then 

 seems to have an instinctive fear of her mate, manifested by 

 the secresy with which she selects the place for her nest; nor, 

 if the Eggs are disturbed, will she go there again. She lays 

 from four or five to seven. If these are taken, she will fre- 

 quently lay a second time during the summer, and the plan is 

 to be recommended to those who are anxious to increase their 

 stock. She sits from twenty-seven to twenty-nine days. A 

 common Hen will hatch and rear the young ; but the same 

 objection lies against her performing that office, except in 

 very fine long summers, for the Pea Fowl as for Turkeys ; 

 namely, that the poults require to be brooded longer than the 

 Hen is able convenienty to do so. A Turkey will prove a 

 much better foster-mother in every respect. The Peahen 

 should of course be permitted to take charge of one set of 

 Eggs. Even without such assistance she will be tolerably suc- 

 cessful. Those students of Poultry who carefully read the 

 " Guinea Fowl" and the " Turkey," and industriously carry 

 the instructions there given into practice, will have no diffi- 

 culty in rearing Pea Chicks. The same wise provision of 

 nature to be noticed in the Guinea Fowl, is evinced in a still 

 greater degree in the little Pea Chicks. Their native jungle, 

 tall, dense, sometimes impervious, swarming with reptile, 

 quadruped, and even insect enemies, would be a most dan- 

 gerous habitation for a little tender thing that could run and 



