268 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



tasteful disposition of their colours, and their means of 

 displaying all these beauties to the greatest possible 

 advantage. 



Two species only of this group are yet known. Of 

 these one has long been familiar to this quarter of the 

 globe, having been introduced into Greece before the 

 time of Pericles, and spread from thence throughout 

 Europe. The other may be regarded as quite a 

 recent acquisition. It was first made known by Aldro- 

 vandus from two drawings which formed part of a 

 collection sent to the Pope by the Emperor of Japan ; 

 but for more than two centuries afterwards nothing- 

 additional was learned respecting it. About the com- 

 mencement of the present century Dr. Shaw gave, in 

 his Zoological Miscellany, a figure taken from an Indian 

 drawing sent home by a friend; and in the year 1813 

 M. Temminck, in the second volume of his Histoire 

 Naturelle des Gallina^es, published a sketch of the 

 head, with a description, taken by Le Vaillant from a 

 living individual seen by him at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, whither it had been sent from Macao. It was 

 subsequently observed by Dr. Horsfield in Java, as well 

 as by Sir Stamford Raffles in Sumatra; and several 

 skins were transmitted to the French Museum from 

 the latter locality by MM. Diard and Duvaucel. A 

 figure of one of these is given in M. Vieillot's Galerie 

 des Oiseaux. Two noble skins, one from the Raffle- 

 sian collection and the other presented by Mr. Cross, 

 form part of the Society's Museum ; and two living 

 specimens from the Burmese territory, presented by 

 Lord Holmesdale, are exhibited in its Menagerie. This 

 rare and beautiful bird is the subject of the present 

 article. 



The principal distinguishing characters of the Pea- 

 cocks as a genus consist in the peculiar crest upon their 

 heads, and the excessive elongation of their tail-coverts 



