PHEASANTS. 235 



GENUS PAVO. (LiNN.) 



This noble fowl, though not a native of this 

 country, has been domesticated with us so long as 

 to be familiar to all our readers. The genus, 

 which contains but two recognised species, is dis- 

 tinguished by the following characters : the beak 

 is convex, rather stout, curved towards the tip, 

 smooth at the base ; the cheeks partially naked ; 

 the nostrils, situated ty the base of the beak, are 

 open ; the head surmounted with an erect crest of 

 slender, peculiarly formed feathers ; the wings 

 are short, the sixth quill the longest ; the tail- 

 coverts very long, broad, and erectile, in the male. 

 The Common Peacock (Pavo cristatus, LINN.) 

 is mentioned as known in Greece in very early 

 times ; Eupolis and Athenseus, who flourished in 

 the fifth century before Christ, speak of it ; and 

 even five centuries farther back, it was regularly 

 imported into Judea from the east in the fleets of 

 Solomon ;- while, at an era still more remote, its 

 beauty is appealed to, as a thing commonly known 

 on the southern border of the same country.* 



It seems scarcely necessary to describe a bird so 

 familiarly known ; to dilate upon its light coronet 

 of lance-tipped feathers, its taper neck, and swell- 

 ing breast of changeable purple, its back and 

 wings of brassy-green, or its superb lengthened 

 tail-coverts, with their dilated tips marked with 

 eye-spots of the richest purple, surrounded by 

 rings of green, black, and chestnut, radiant with 

 gem-like reflections. These feathers do not con- 

 stitute the tail, for they begin to grow far up 

 on the back, so that when erected and spread, 



* Job xxxix. 13. 



