CiiAP. Vni. PEACOCK. 305 



value, and for its prolificness and tameness. In all these 

 points tlie goose diffei-s from the wild parent-form ; and these 

 are the points which have been selected. Even in ancient 

 times the Roman gourmands valued the liver of the white 

 goose; and Pierre Belon^^ in 1555 speaks of two varieties, 

 one of which was larger, more fecund, and of a better colour 

 than the other ; and he expressly states that good managers 

 attended to the colour of their goslings, so that they might 

 know which to preserve and select for breeding. 



The Peacock, 



This is another bird which has hardly varied under domesti- 

 cation, except in sometimes being white or piebald. Mr. 

 Waterhouse carefully compared, as he informs me, skins of 

 the wild Indian and domestic bird, and they were identical 

 in every respect, except that the plumage of the latter was 

 perhaps rather thicker. Whether our birds are descended 

 from those introduced into Europe in the time of Alexander, 

 or have been subsequently imported, is doubtful. They do 

 not breed very freely with us, and are seldom kept in large 

 numbers, — circumstances which would greatly interfere with 

 the gradual selection and formation of new breeds. 



There is one strange fact with respect to the peacock, 

 namely, the occasional appearance in England of the 

 "japanned" or "black-shouldered" kind. This form has 

 lately been named on the high authority of Mr. Sclater as a 

 distinct species, viz. Pavo nigripennis, which he believes will 

 hereafter be found wild in some country, but not in India, 

 where it is certainly unknown. The males of these japanned 

 birds differ conspicuously from the common peacock in the 

 colour of their secondary wing-feathers, scapulars, wing- 

 coverts, and thighs, and are I think more beautiful ; they 

 are rather smaller than the common sort, and are always 

 beaten by them in their battles, as I hear from the Hon. 

 A. S. G. Canning. The females are much paler coloured than 

 those of the common kind. Both sexes, as Mr. Canning 



'^'L'Hist.delaNaturedesOiiseaus,' being preferred by the Romans, see 

 par P. Belon, 1555, p. 156. With Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, ' Hist. Nat 

 respect to the livers of white geese Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 58. 



VOL, I, ^ 



