ORDER GALLlNiE. 135 



indications given by that writer, can it be fairly concluded 

 that it is identified with the first. It is, therefore, with great 

 justice that our author remarks, that the name hoazin was 

 applied by Buffon without any proof. We have put our 

 readers in possession of every thing which is known on the 

 subject. 



We now come to that most celebrated of all birds, the 

 Peacock ; one which has given occasion to so many fine 

 descriptions both in prose and verse, but of which the most 

 eloquent, without exception, is to be found in the works of 

 BufFon, from the pen of M. Gueneau de Montbeillard ; but 

 as the works of BufFon are universally read, and as the elo- 

 quence of the original has been so inimitably transfused into 

 our own language by Goldsmith, we shall draw our simple 

 descriptions from other sources, without vainly and presump- 

 tuously attempting to become the rivals of either the French 

 or the English writer. 



It is not indeed an easy task to undertake the description 

 of a bird on which Nature has showered, with so much pro- 

 fusion, her rarest and most brilliant colours. It is difiicult to 

 render merely by words, the variovis hues with which the 

 costume of the peacock is embellished. The radiant lustre 

 which we admire in the most precious gems, is enkindled, in 

 every dazzling variety of colour, in the rich plumage of this 

 highly gifted bird. 



The article on the peacock to which we have just alluded, 

 from the elegant pen of Montbeillard, brilliant and graceful 

 as it is, will be found by the naturalist to be a purely poetical 

 picture ; he will, in perusing it, have to regret the want of 

 that succinct, clear, and precise exposition of specific charac- 

 ters, which the interests of science demand. Sonnini, how- 

 ever, in his addition to that article, has supplied this desider- 

 atum ; — one, we fear, too frequently to be found in the 

 descriptions of indigenous animals by the eloquent BufFon. 



