Hoactzin 317 



tain slopes, being partial to broken and jungly ground where good cover exists, 

 near water on the one hand, and cultivation on the other. Where such favorable 

 conditions exist the Peacock is sure to abound, and in many localities it is said 

 to exist literally in myriads, being protected by the more or less superstitious 

 reverence of the native population, who deplore if not absolutely prohibit its 

 slaughter. It is a rather omnivorous feeder, subsisting on land snails, insects of 

 all kinds, worms, small lizards, and tiny frogs, but preferring apparently grain, 

 juicy grasses, and buds, and being at times very destructive to young planta- 

 tions and growing crops. The old males are in full plumage from June to De- 

 cember and may often be seen displaying their gorgeousness before a group of 

 admiring females, for the Peacock is polygamous, consorting with four or five 

 hens ; at the close of the breeding season the feathers of the train are cast. 



The Burmese Pea Fowl (P. muticus), which ranges from Burma through 

 the Malay Peninsula to Java, is slightly larger than the last, the full-plumaged 

 male being over eighty-two inches in length as against a maximum of seventy- 

 eight in the common form. In addition it is distinguished at once by having 

 the feathers of the crest longer and equally webbed on either side of the shafts, 

 instead of naked quills with fan-shaped extremities; another difference is in the 

 wing-coverts and shoulders being black in place of buff barred with black, as in 

 the Common Peacock, and the neck and under parts green instead of blue. Its 

 habits are very like those of its relative except that it is perhaps a more strictly 

 sylvan or forest-haunting bird. 



THE HOACTZIN 



(Suborder Opisthocomi, Family O pisthocomidce) 



Among living birds it is rare indeed to find within the limits of a single species a 

 combination of characters which entitles it at once to generic, family, and sub- 

 ordinal rank, but such is the distinction of that most curious of birds, the Hoact- 

 zin (Opisthocomus hoazin), which is the sole tenant of the family O pisthocomida 

 and suborder Opisthocomi. It is a small, 

 quite Pheasant-like bird in appearance, 

 about twenty-three inches in length, with 

 a long, loose crest of rather stiff-shafted 

 feathers, relatively stout feet and legs, long, 

 rounded wings, and a long, slightly rounded 

 tail composed of ten feathers; the eyes are 

 set in the midst of a patch of bare skin 

 and provided with bristly lashes. The color- 

 ation above is dark brown glossed with olive 

 and slightly varied with white, the wing- 

 quills being chestnut and the under parts 



. , r . . i i FIG. 103. Hoactzin, Opisthocomus 



pale buff, shading into chestnut on the sides hoazin. 



