V. 3 

 ANIMALS INTRODUCED FOR AMENITY 



SEVERAL creatures of interest and a few of some im- 

 portance in the composition of our fauna owe their presence 

 to little more than the whim of the lover of Nature or the 

 surplus energy of the naturalist. The reason for some of 

 these introductions stands in plain view, for others it is in- 

 discernible. 



THE PEACOCK 



No one can doubt, for example, that the feeling for 

 colour led to the transfer of the " beauteous Peacock " far 

 from its native home in India and Ceylon. We, in Britain, 

 probably owe its presence to the Romans. In mediaeval 

 days it seems to have been moderately common in Scotland, 

 more common than the Pheasant, for it graced the table of 

 the Earl of Athole at the great feast in the "wilderness " of 

 Perthshire in 1529 (see p. 266), when its lesser relative was 

 absent ; and in the old Scots laws it was ranked as wild-fowl, 

 under the plea that " the nature of the Peacock is wild, 

 although they are wont always to return to the same place." 

 (Frag. Coll. i. 750 b). Nevertheless, Juno's bird, despite 

 the decrees of law and the long ages of its habitation, is still 

 no more than an exotic flower in our dull clime, a bird the 

 " painted plumes " of which add to the pleasure of park or 

 shrubbery, but which remains outwith the native fauna. 



BIRDS OF BRIGHT PLUMAGE 



Other strange birds have been set free on account of their 

 beauty, though most of them have rapidly disappeared from 

 the fauna they invaded. Red-winged Starlings (Agel&us 

 phceniceus] from America, were released by the late Duke of 

 Argyll in Argyllshire, but soon died out, and in recent years 

 "Pekin Robins" (Liotkrix luteus] and many exotic Doves 

 Bronze Wings, Turtles, and Crested Pigeons have been 



