136 CLASS AVES. 



Before we pass to any notice of the peacock, which we 

 have daily under our view, and which the assiduous care of man 

 has naturalized, almost in the coldest regions, it will be as well 

 to follow the steps of M. Temminck, in making our readers 

 acquainted with the wild peacock, the original stock of our 

 magnificent bird. It has been long since decided that India 

 was the cradle of the peacock. It is in the countries of 

 Southern Asia and the vast Archipelago of the Eastern 

 Ocean, that this bird appears to have fixed its dwelling, and 

 to live in a state of freedom. All travellers who have visited 

 these countries make mention of these birds. Thevenot en- 

 countered great numbers of them in the province of Guzzerat ; 

 Tavemier throughout all India ; and Payrard in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Calcutta. Labillardiere tells us, that peacocks 

 are common in the Island of Java. We well know that the 

 chase of the peacock forms one of the greatest amusements in 

 Bengal, and in the Islands of Java and Sumatra ; but this 

 sport is somewhat dangerous, says M. Temminck, as the 

 proximity of the tiger, in those places where the peacocks 

 most abound, obliges the hunters to use much circumspection, 

 for this dreaded beast of prey shows a peculiar predilection 

 for the flesh of these birds ; notwithstanding this, the chase 

 of the tiger himself, forms at present one of the most favourite 

 diversions of the gallant ofiicers of our Indian army. 



Though all writers agree in this, that the peacock is an 

 inhabitant of the countries of India, and lives there in a state 

 of freedom, yet none before the time of M. Temminck had 

 favoured us with a faithful description of it, taken from 

 nature. Neither had they given any figure of it. 



It is impossible to determine with precision the epocha of 

 the domestication of the peacock ; we know well that it must 

 have been of the most remote antiquity, since the fleets of 

 Solomon, in their distant voyages, brought back every three 

 years to Palestine, peacocks, which are enumerated among 



