ORDER GALLIN.E. 149 



permanent race, which was transported from India by man, 

 or which could have migrated through the north of Asia 

 into those frigid climates, since in these same countries there 

 is no such distinct race, nor has any author ever mentioned 

 it. These birds, entirely white, are, in fact, very rare, even 

 less abundant, in the wild state, in India, than with us in a 

 state of domestication. They are to be met in those latitudes, 

 occasionally flying in company with great flocks of the wild 

 peacocks, which are decorated with brilliant colours. This 

 is a suflicient proof that, in this instance, as in many others, 

 the influence of climate was over-rated by Buffbn ; and that 

 this great genius was misled here, as elsewhere, by false analo- 

 gies. The birds, between which and the peacocks he instituted 

 his comparison, are totally different ; and he attributed solely 

 to climate disparities which characterize different species. 



A note of M. Sonnini, from the French Encyclopaedia, is 

 sufficient to set this question at rest for ever, if indeed the 

 slightest doubt could now exist about it. 



" The race of white peacocks is not essentially original to 

 the north, for in 1783 a pair of common peacocks produced, at 

 Gentilli, near Paris, four young ones, two of which preserved 

 the plumage of the parents, and two were entirely white. 

 Nevertheless Mauduyt, who relates this fact, observes that 

 there was no white peacock in the village, nor in the environs. 

 The same thing occurred, a few years before, in an estate 

 equally near Paris. It then appears, that the whiteness of 

 the plumage of the peacock is a simple accidental variety, 

 which one cannot regard as forming a permanent race ; and 

 what seems to prove this still more is, that these white 

 peacocks are very rare." 



Although the plumage of the white peacock is altogether 

 of this colour, the long plumes of the train do yet retain, at 

 their extremities, some vestiges of the brilliant mirrors pecu- 

 liar to the species ; and all the rest of their livery carries the 

 impression of the different colours, though feebly sketched 



