Mr. P. L. Sclater on the Black-shouldered Peacock. 147 
tally resembles. The whole of the secondaries, scapulars, and 
wing-coverts are black with outer narrow edgings of green, which 
becomes bluish towards the carpal jot. In this particular it re- 
sembles P. muticus, and is very different from P. cristatus, in which 
all these feathers are cream-coloured crossed with black markings. 
The thighs of P. nigripennis are black, as in P. muticus. In P. 
eristatus they are always of a pale drab. The female of P. nigri- 
pennis is of a much lighter colouring than that of P. cristatus, being 
almost entirely of a pale cream-colour, mottled with dark colouring 
above, and readily recognizable at first sight. In this respect, it may 
be remarked that the Black-shouldered Peacock is not intermediate 
between the two others ; since in Pavo muticus the female is much 
more like the male. ‘ 
Now the question arises, What is the Black-shouldered Peacock ? 
Is it a domestic variety, a hybrid, or a feral species? I cannot con- 
sider it a domestic variety, because the differences in both sexes 
appear to be constant, and to descend to the progeny, and, indeed, 
are not of that sort that would be induced by domestication. M. 
Temminck, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Pigeons et des Gallinacés,’ * 
considers the Black-shouldered Peacock as the true Wild Peacock, 
and the Pavo cristatus to be a domestic variety of that. But 
this we know is not the case,—the Common Wild Pea-fowl of Hin- 
dostan being the true Pavo cristatus, and the Black-shouldered 
Peacock being, as I believe, unknown in that country+. That the 
Pavo nigripennis is not a hybrid between Pavo cristatus and P. 
muticus, is evident from the fact that we have now in our Gardens 
birds produced by this cross, and that they bear different characters 
altogether, as may be seen by the stuffed specimen which I now 
exhibit. Besides, the fertility of the birds, and the permanency and 
invariability of the differences which separate it from its two allies, 
seem to be quite conclusive against this view. If, therefore, it is not 
a domestic breed nor a hybrid, we must adopt the third alternative, 
and consider Pavo nigripennis as a distinct feral species. And I have 
little doubt that when the range of the Pavonide is more accurately 
known, we shall find that Pavo nigripennis occupies a distinct geogra- 
phical area, which will in all probability be intermediate in position, 
as the bird is in characters, between Pavo cristatus and Pavo 
muticus. 
Attention having been now called to this subject, I hope that no 
opportunity will be lost of examining the eggs, the osteology, and 
the anatomy of these birds, in order to ascertain whether the external 
characters are supported by other grounds of differentiation. 
* Vol. ii. p. 26, Paon sauvage: Pavo cristatus primus. 
+ Our Head Keeper, Mr. James Thompson, who was in Calcutta in 1857, 
informs me that the Babu Rajendra Mullick, whois the owner of a very fine col- 
lection of living animals, had never seen the Black-shouldered Peacock, though 
he had specimens both of the Common and Javanese species in his Aviaries, and 
had bred hybrids between these two. 
10* 
