COMMON PEACOCK. 16? 



docile horse, being provided with a long whip, may 

 eventually so completely fatigue it as to lash it down, 

 or twirl the whip round its neck. In other parts of 

 India, as one of our old travellers assert*, the natives 

 catch them by carrying lights to the trees upon which 

 they roost, holding up, at the same time, painted re- 

 presentations of the bird ; and when the peacocks stretch 

 €ut their neck to look at the figure, a noose is passed 

 over their head by which they are secured. The age of 

 the peacock is stated in some instances to be very great. 

 Aristotle mentions twenty-five years ; but one is re- 

 corded t which belonged to Mr. Hinwood, of Cordenham 

 in Cornwall, which, after attaining to the alleged age 

 of ninety, was accidentally killed. 



The peacock, as a domestic bird, is now more orna- 

 mental than useful : although formerly they were much 

 more valued for the table than they are now, yet at the 

 present day they are esteemed, when young, as a great 

 delicacy. The young may be fed upon curd and barley- 

 meal, and similar substances : in five or six months 

 they attain to their full size, but do not acquire the 

 perfect brilliancy of their plumage until the third year. 



The expansive power of the train is well known : 

 most persons, indeed, believe this is the tail; but the true 

 tail consists of brownish, plain coloured feathers, not 

 more than eighteen inches long ; whereas those gorgeous 

 plumes, which generally bear this name, are no other 

 than the upper tail covers, developed to an unpre- 

 cedented length, and which, when expanded, are sup- 

 ported from behind by the real tail. There are several 

 instances of this developement, although in a less degree, 

 among rasorial birds, no less than in their repre- 

 sentatives : the most remarkable of these, among the 

 latter, is our Caliirus re-sfdendens, or resplendent trogon 

 of tropical America. 



A lengthened description of a bird so well known, is 

 entirely unnecessary in this place ; yet a brief notice of 



* Tavernier, iii. 51. t I-ath. Gen. Hist. 



