2VES—CUCE. 589 
pursuits, walls cannot easily confine it; it strips the tops of houses of their 
tiles or thatch, it lays waste the labors of the gardener, roots up his choicest 
seeds, and nips his favorite flowers in the bud. Thus its beauty ill recom- 
penses for the mischief it occasions ; and many of the more homely looking 
fowls are very deservedly preferred before it. 
The peahen seldom lays above five or six eggs in this climate before she 
sits. Aristotle describes her as laying twelve; and it is probable, in her 
native climate, she may be thus prolific: for it is certain, that, in the forests 
where they breed naturally, they are numerous beyond expression. The 
bird lives about twenty years; and not till its third year has it that beautiful 
variegated plumage that adorns its tail. 
THE DOMESTIC COCK. 

OF all birds, the cock seems to be the oldest companion of mankind, to 
have Leen first reclaimed from the forest, and taken to supply the accidental 
failure of the luxuries or necessaries of iife. As he is thus longest under 
the care of man, so perhaps he exhibits the greatest number of varieties, 
there being scarcely two birds of this species that exactly resemble each 
other in plumage and form. 
It is not well ascertained when the cock was first made domestic in 
Europe; but it is generally agreed that it was first brought there from the 
kingdom of Persia. It came to America with the early European settlers. 
The cock is found wild in the island of Tinian, in many others of the Indian 
ocean, and in the woods on the coasts of Malabar; his plumage is black and 
yellow, and his comb and wattles are yellow and purple. There is another 
peculiarity also in those of the Indian weeds; their bones, which, when 
1 Gallus domesticus, Temm. This genus has the bill of medium size, strong, base 
naked ; upper mandible arched, convex, bent tewards the point ; head surmounted by a crest 
or plume; ears naked ; three toes before, united to the first joint; the hind toe raised from 
af ground ; tarsus with a long and bent spur; middle feathers of the tail arched+ wings 
SHort. 
50 
