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Some Notes on Pavo nigripennis.



SOME NOTES ON PAVO NIGRIPENNIS .


ETC.


By F. E. Blaauw, C.M.Z.S.


There is a mystery about a bird which however is familiar to

many; I mean the Black-shouldered Peafowl ( Pavo nigripennis)..

As is well known, there are two views about the origin of this bird.

Some say that it is a good species with Cochin China as its habitat.

Others maintain that it is only a variety of the common Peafowl

(Pavo cristatus ) originated in English parks.


The matter being of some interest to me, I have kept pea¬

fowl of this kind in my park during the last twenty-four years, and

I have bred great numbers every spring. My object was to see if

Black-shouldered Peafowl would ever in any way throw back to the

so-called original form of Cristatus, thereby proving their origin. I

may as well sav at once that this has never been the case.


Black-shouldered Peafowl have invariably bred true, but

they have in some cases become variegated with white, and by

selection I have at last obtained pure white specimens of the kind.

Having satisfied myself that no amount of breeding would give me

Pavo cristatus I tried the following experiment. I bought a pure

white hen of the common Pavo cristatus and paired her with one of

my Black-shouldered cocks that showed some white in its feathers.

The result was four chicks which are adult now. They are two

cocks and two hens, and are neither Black-shouldered nor white

peafowl, but simply normally coloured Pavo cristatus. Now, if

Nigripennis is only a sport of Cristatus, one would expect that a

white sport of Cristatus would be the same thing as a white sport

of Nigripennis. So that a normally coloured or variegated cock of

Nigripennis paired with a white hen of Cristatus would breed the

same thing with that hen, as it would breed with a white Nigri¬

pennis hen, that is either pure white birds or normally or variegated

Nigripennis peafowl.


Now this is not the case. The influence of the white

Cristatus hen is such that the result of the union is normally

coloured Cristatus peafowl, which show no sign of the Nigripennis

father. In the Zoological Gardens of London, Mr. Seth-Smith has

informed me that the pairing of a normally coloured Pavo cristatus



