THE PEA FOWL. 181 



the contrary, it was slaughtered in very wantonness, 

 for the sake of a few parts only deemed worthy of 

 being introduced as small items in the dishes of royal 

 lunatics or noble madmen. The sneer of Martial must, 

 in his day, have been biting ; he saw the peacock in its 

 glory, and then beheld it murdered for the sake of its 

 brains. "Well might he say 



" Oft as the bird his gem-started plumes displays 

 In admiration dost them stop to gaze, 

 And canst thou then, hard-hearted, take its life, 

 And coollj 7 give it to your hireling's knife." 



Of the favorite dishes of the Emperor Yitellius, called 

 the buckler of Minerva, was prepared with the livers 

 of a choice fish, the scarus, (Scarus creticus,) the 

 tongues of flamingos, and the brains of peacocks. The 

 bird figured also in the feasts of Hortensius and other 

 sensualists. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



THE pea fowl is extensively spread in a wild state, 

 in India and the Indian Islands. It is abundant in the 

 dense woods of the Grhauts, and is readily domestica- 

 ted, many of the Hindoo temples in the Dukhun, as 

 Colonel Sykes informs us, having considerable flocks 

 of them. On comparing specimens of the wild bird 

 with the domesticated pea fowl of our country, he- 

 found no difference in any respect. " Irides intense 

 red-brown," or rather, he should say, blood-red. 



The wild pea fowl associates in numbers, and where 

 a favorite feeding ground invites them, hundreds some- 

 times collect together, but they are very wary, and run 

 with extreme velocity. 



Colonel Williamson, in his account of peacock shoot- 

 ing, states that he has seen them in astonishing num- 

 bers about the passes in the jungletery district 

 Whole woods were covered with their beautiful plu- 

 mage, to which the rising sun imparted additional 

 brilliancy ; he states that small patches scattered 

 about, cultivated with mustard which was then in 

 bloom, induced the birds to collect there for the sake 



