100 PEACOCKS. 



tLe most important and magnificent occasions; and 

 he who carved them was considered as honoured in 

 the highest degree. The feathers from the tail of 

 the Peacock were formed hy the ladies of quality 

 into a crown, for the purpose of decorating their 

 favourite trouhadours, or minstrels. The eyes were 

 considered to represent the attention of the whole 

 world as fixed upon them. And in those days of 

 chivalry, so constantly was the Peacock the object 

 of the solemn vows of the knights, that its image 

 was hungup in the place were they exercised them- 

 selves in the management of their horses and wea- 

 pons; and hefore it, when roasted and dressed in its 

 plumage, and placed, with great pomp and cere- 

 mony, as the top dish, at the most splendid feasts, 

 all the guests, male and female, took a solemn vow. 

 The knights vowing bravery, the ladies engaging 

 to be loving and faithful. It was, no doubt, in con- 

 sequence of this veneration, that Queen Elizabeth 

 chose to have her picture taken in a gorgeous robe, 

 covered with Peacocks' eyes. 



If we are indebted to India for the Peacock 

 (where, in their wild state, they fly in coveys, glit- 

 tering in the sun, or may be seen roosting in trees, 

 in such numbers, that an author describes them as 

 almost hiding the foliage with their plumage), and to 

 the Eastern countries for our Pheasants, we have to 

 thank the New World, for that more homely, but 

 more useful bird, the Turkey, which, there is reason 

 to believe, was never known in Europe, till about 

 three hundred years ago, when it was imported 

 from America ; but which has now been so widely 

 spread, that in some places, as, for instance, in the 



