Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 163 



came from the Ifle of Samos were moft valued. 1 

 Horace does not forget the peacock at his feafts, 

 and Juvenal fatirizes the indigeftion of the glutton 

 who " carries a whole peacock infide him when he 

 goes to the bath" (i. 143). This proud bird 

 was facred to Juno, and is often found on the 

 coins of the Casfars as a fign of the " confecratio " 

 of their female relatives, juft as the eagle pointed 

 to the apotheofis of the males of that family. 

 There can be no doubt that our lordly terraces are 

 indebted to the Romans for their peacocks. 2 The 

 pheafant is another bird of brilliant plumage 

 which alfo came to us from Rome. Its home is 

 Colchis; fo Statius fays to gluttons: "Ah, 

 miferable men who delight to know how far the 

 bird of Phafis furpafTes the wintry crane of 

 Rhodope" ("Sylv.," iv. 7). Ariftophanes alfo 

 tells us that pheafants were dear to gluttons. 

 Pliny notices that in Colchis the pheafant could 

 raife and deprefs two earlike feathers. Both 

 peacock and pheafant were probably brought to 

 Britain to grace the villas of its Roman con- 

 querors. 3 Guinea-fowls alfo arrived in Britain at 

 the fame time. They were known as Numidian 

 or African fowls to the Roman poets, from their 



1 Aulus Cell., vii. 16. 



2 The peacock is mentioned in Chaucer, " Romaunt of the 

 Rofe ;" and Profeflbr Rogers thinks it was not introduced until 

 the thirteenth century (Greenwell and Rollellon's "Britim 

 Barrows," 1877, p. 744). 



3 In 1 199 a certain W. Brewer was licenfed to have "free- 

 warren throughout all his own lands for hares, pbeafants, and 

 partridges " (Dugdale) ; fo the pheafant was at that time accli- 

 matized in Englifh woodlands. 



