THE PEA FOWL. 185 



quills, with the coolest indifference. Nor does he seem 

 to care much about her admiration, or to make all 

 this exhibition of his attractions to secure her notice, 

 but is content, if he can get some astonished hen, or 

 silly bewildered duck, up a corner, to wonder what all 

 this fuss is about. Like other vain coxcombs, he ex- 

 pects the lady to make the first advances. Although 

 occasionally cruel, the peacock is shy of fighting, par- 

 ticularly when in full plumage ; nor do these birds so 

 frequently engage with each other as with those of a 

 different species, such as drakes, cocks, &c. One, out 

 of feather, was seen to keep up a three-hour struggle 

 with a musk drake ; had it been in full plumage, it 

 would not have shown fight at all. 



Another objection to them, is their alleged wanton 

 destructiveness towards the young of other poultry, a 

 propensity respecting which, the accounts are very 

 contradictory. It is believed, however, that the pea- 

 cock becomes more cruel as he advances in life, al- 

 though they often vary in their dispositions. A writer 

 on this point says, " I have known them to kill from 

 twelve to twenty ducklings, say from a week to a 

 fortnight old, during one day ; but if they come across 

 a brood of young chicks or ducklings, a few days old, 

 they would destroy the whole of them." And yet, in 

 the face of all this condemnatory evidence, we now 

 and then see a favorite bird, with neck of lapis lazuli, 

 back of emerald, wings of tortoise shell, and tail out- 

 shining the rainbow, in some old-fashioned farm yard, 

 the pet of his mistress, who is, perhaps, the most suc- 

 cessful poultry woman in the neighborhood, and whose 

 stock shows no sign of any murderous thinning. The 

 peahen, which, 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 a hedge." 



Nervous and fastidious persons object to their cry, 

 or call, which, indeed, is not melodious ; and a strip 

 of woollen cloth is sometimes hung round their necks 



