CHAP. X.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 233 



and we shall never forget the manly feeling of 

 regret evinced by the honest fellow who caused 

 the accident. The chicks were carried to the 

 house, and every care bestowed upon them ; 

 but they had been only lately hatched, and it 

 soon became apparent that no tenderness, 

 however delicately administered, can equal 

 that of the parent bird, for they gradually 

 drooped, some daily dying, and in the course 

 of a week not one of them was left. 



We name the Pea-fowl rather as an orna- 

 mental appendage to the lawns of some villas, 

 than as being of any real use in the poultry- 

 yard, into which, if they be admitted, they 

 peck at and destroy the chickens of the other 

 fowls. Nor is it of value in any other sense 

 than the beauty of its variegated plumage : 

 the peacock being, indeed, a splendid crea- 

 ture, which every one must admire when he 

 displays the gorgeous brilliancy of his mag- 

 nificent tail. 



The bird came originally from the East, 

 and was at a very remote period brought from 

 Asia Minor into Greece, from whence it was 

 transplanted to Rome towards the fall of the 

 Republic, and afterwards found its way to every 



