PE\ FOWL. 223 



known to extend more than a yard and a half fiom their 

 insertions. 



The colour of the ordinary peacock is too well known to 

 need description. White and pied varieties are also bred, but 

 are, in our judgment, far less ornamental. This species, called 

 by naturalists Pavo cristattts, has a crest consisting of about 

 two dozen feathers, only webbed at the very tips. 



There is another variety known as the Javan Pea-fowl, or 

 Pavo muticus. This bird is larger than the common Pea-fowl, 

 the male sometimes measuring more than seven feet from the 

 bill to the end of the " tail" The naked space round the eye 

 is also of a livid blue colour, and the feathers of the neck are 

 laminated, or resembling scales. The most characteristic 

 difference, however, is in the crest, which is much higher, and 

 the feathers of which are webbed, though rather scantily, from 

 the base, instead of being bare till near the tips. The bird 

 also differs in only possessing his long and splendid ocellated 

 train during the breeding season, at other times appearing 

 with feathers not so long, and destitute of the well-known 

 "eyes," but of a rich green with gold reflections, beautifully 

 and regularly " barred," or " pencilled," on a very large scale, 

 with whity-brown. This splendid bird is not very common. 



A third variety has recently been described, called the 

 " black-winged " Pea-fowl, in which the shoulders and most of 

 the wing in the male bird are black. The hen is much lighter 

 than the common breed, being generally of a cream colour, 

 with a dark back It appears a distinct race ; but it must be 

 admitted that all three varieties of Pea-fowl freely intermix 

 with a fertile result, and so closely resemble each other in 

 nearly all their characteristics, that a common origin is certain. 



Pea-fowl are of a very wild disposition, and generally roost 

 either on trees or on the very top ridge of a roof, to which they 

 fly with ease. The hen lays in the greatest seclusion, and must 

 always be allowed to select her own nest, usually deep in a 



