CHAPTER XIII 



PEAFOWLS 



The peacock, or male peafowl, when matured and in full 

 plumage, is the most gorgeous of birds. Many smaller birds are 

 more brilliant in color. Many birds of various sizes and types 

 have beautiful or interesting characters as attractive as those 

 which distinguish the peacock. But this bird surpasses them 

 all in attractiveness, because in it are combined in the highest 

 degree size, beauty of form, beauty of color, and the power of 

 displaying its beauties to the greatest advantage. 



Description. The adult peacock is so much more striking in 

 appearance than the females and the young males, and old males 

 are so often exhibited alone, that many persons suppose that 

 the peafowl are distinctly unlike other domestic birds. The 

 size, shape, and carriage of the peacock sometimes suggest to 

 them a resemblance to the turkey gobbler, but the peacock's 

 most striking characters seem so peculiar to it that the atten- 

 tion of the observer is usually fixed upon them, to the exclusion 

 of direct comparisons with other creatures. When, however, 

 one sees a flock containing several females, or males in which 

 the characteristic plumage is not yet developed, the general re- 

 semblance between peafowl and turkeys is immediately noticed. 

 The peafowl is smaller, slenderer, and more graceful than the 

 turkey, and is a little more agile in motion. But if there were 

 no old males present to identify the species to which they be- 

 long, a person who was not familiar with peafowls, seeing a flock 

 for the first time, would be almost certain to think that they were 

 turkeys of a rare breed. Notwithstanding this striking general 

 likeness, a close observer will soon note that in nearly every 



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