BIRDS. 117 



thein. Tliey run off swifter than the partridge ; and hide them- 

 selves in the thickets, where it is impossible to (iiul them. They 

 perch by night upon trees ; and the fowler often approaches 

 them at that season with a kind of banner, on which a peacock 

 is painted to the life on either side. A lightid torch is fixed 

 on the top of this decoy ; and the peacock when disturbed flies to 

 what it takes for another, and is thus caught in a noose prepar- 

 ed for that purpose." 



There are varieties of this bird, some of which are white, 

 others crested : that which is called the Peacock of Thibet, is 

 the most beautiful of the feathered creation, containing in its 

 plumage all the most vivid colours, red, blue, yellow, ami 

 green, disposed in an almost artificial order, as if merely to 

 please the eye of the beholder. * 



• The Japan Peacnrk. — The Japan Peacock is only known to Europe by 

 means of a paintingsent by the emperor of Japan to the pope. It is about the size 

 of the crested peacock ; but the hill is larger, and asli.coloured ; the iris yel- 

 low, and round the eye is red. On the top of the head is an upright crest 

 foiur inches long, and shaped somewhat like an ear of corn. The colour is 

 green mixed with blue. The top of the neck and head greenish, marked 

 with spots of blue ; the breast is blue and green-gold mixed ; the belly, ■ 

 Bides, and thighs are ash-colour, marked with black spots, streaked with 

 white on the belly ; the wing coverts and secondaries are not unlike the 

 back ; the greater quills are green, transversely barred with black lines, but 

 growing yellowish towards the ends, where they <ire black ; the upper tail- 

 coverts are fewer than those of the common peacock, but much longer than 

 the tail ; they are of a chestnut brown with white shafis, and have at the 

 end of each a largo spot gilded in the middle, then blue, and surrounded 

 with green ; the legs are ash-coloured, and not furnished with spurs. The 

 female of this species is smaller than the male, aud differs in having the 

 belly quite black, aud the upper tail-coverts much shorter. 



The Chinese Peacock.— The Chinese peacock is larger than the common 

 peacock : the bill is black, but from the nostrils to the tip of the upper 

 mandible red : the iris is yellow. The feathers on the crown of the head 

 are sufficiently long to form a crest of a dull brown colour. The space be- 

 tween the bill and thighs is naked, witli a few scattered hairs ; the sides 

 of the head are wliite ; the neck is bright bro^vn, striated across with dusky 

 brown ; the upper parts of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts are dull 

 brown, dotted with paler brown, and yellowish ; besides which each fea- 

 ther is marked near the end with a roundish large spot of a gilded purple 

 colour, changing into blue and green in different lights ; the lo«-er part of 

 the back is dotted with white ; all the under parts are brown, striated trans, 

 vcrsely with black ; the quills are dusky ; the secondaries are marked with 

 the same spots as the rest of the wing; the upper tail-coverts are longer 

 than the tail, and marked at the end with a spot like the wing feathers, 

 each of which is surrounded first with a circle of black, luid ultimately wiu> 



