PEACOCK 699 



where the Patella is reduced to a small ossicle within the tendon, 

 its function being taken by the greatly-developed pyramidal p'o- 

 cessus tibialis anterior, and in Podidpes and Hesperornis, where it 

 is almost as large as the cnemial process with which it freely 

 articulates. 



PEACOCK (the first syllable from the Latin Pavo, in Anglo- 

 Saxon Pawe, Dutch Paauw, German Pfau, French Paon), the bird 

 so well known from the splendid plumage of the male, and as the 

 proverbial personification of pride. A native of the Indian penin- 

 sula and Ceylon, in some parts of which it is very abundant, its 

 domestication dates from times so remote that nothing can be posi- 

 tively stated on that score. Setting aside its importation to Pales- 

 tine by Solomon (1 Kings x. 22 ; 2 Chron. ix. 21), its assignment 

 in classical mythology as the favourite bird of Hera or Juno testifies 

 to the early acquaintance the Greeks must have had with it ; but, 

 though it is mentioned by Aristophanes and other older writers, 

 their knowledge of it was probably very slight until after the con- 

 quests of Alexander. Throughout all succeeding time, however, it 

 has never very willingly rendered itself to domestication, and, retain- 

 ing much of its wild character, can hardly be accounted an inhabit- 

 ant of the poultry-yard, but rather an ornamental denizen of the 

 pleasure-ground or shrubbery ; while, even in this condition, it is 

 seldom kept in large numbers, for it has a bad reputation for doing 

 mischief in gardens, it is not very prolific, and, though in earlier 

 days highly esteemed for the table, 1 it is no longer considered the 

 delicacy it was once thought. 



As in most cases of domestic animals, pied or white varieties of 

 the ordinary Peacock, Pavo cristatus, are not unfrequently to be 

 seen ; and, though lacking the gorgeous resplendence for which the 

 common bird stands unsurpassed, they are valued as curiosities. 

 Greater interest, however, attends what is known as the " japanned " 

 Peacock^ often erroneously named the Japanese or Japan Peacock, 

 a form which has received the name of P. nigripennis, as though it 

 were a distinct species. In this form the cock, beside other less 

 conspicuous differences, has all the upper wing-coverts of a deep 

 lustrous blue instead of being mottled with brown and white, while 

 the hen is of a more or less greyish-white, deeply tinged with dull 

 yellowish-brown near the base of the neck and shoulders. It 

 " breeds true " ; but occasionally a presumably pure stock of birds 

 of the usual coloration throws out one or more having the 



1 Classical authors contain many allusions to its high appreciation at the most 

 sumptuous banquets ; and mediaeval bills of fare on state occasions nearly always 

 include it. In the days of chivalry one of the most solemn oaths was taken " on 

 the Peacock," which seems to have been served up garnished with its gaudy 

 plumage. 



