150 CLASS AVES. 



with a white more or less pure. The variety of the white 

 peacocks is not very common, and these birds always bear a 

 higher price than the others. They are exceedingly hand- 

 some, and produce an admirable effect in the midst of a 

 flock of richly decorated peacocks. 



The white pea-hen differs from the other females, only in 

 her colour. 



In the Royal Menagerie at Windsor there is at present a 

 very fine specimen of the white peacock. 



The pavo muticiis was for a long time considered as a 

 doubtful species, its existence resting only on a painted figure 

 sent by the Emperor of Japan to the Pope, in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, after whit^h were made the descriptions of Aldrovandus, 

 Brisson, and other later writers. But the testimony of M. 

 Levaillant, who sent to M. Temminck a drawing from nature 

 of the head of this bird, which he had seen at the Cape, must 

 remove all hesitation at admitting it into the list of authen- 

 ticated species. It is of the size and form of the common 

 peacock^ bvit diflers from it by the nature of its tuft, which 

 is erect, and composed of ten narrow graduated feathers, and 

 something resembling the tail of the long-tailed titmouse 

 (pariis caudatus). The feet are armed with a spur, which 

 renders Linnjeus''s denomination of muticus incorrect. The 

 cry of this bird differs very much from that of the common 

 peacock. 



The pavo hicalcaratus has been separated by M. Tem- 

 minck from the peacocks, and formed into an insulated genus 

 under the name of Polyplectron. The grounds for his sepa- 

 ration of it are these : — This bird does not elevate the tail, 

 like the peacocks. It has neither the large dorsal plumes, 

 nor the plumes of the train, with which the peacock forms its 

 wheel. Its tail is of a totally different form, not only from 

 that of the peacock and the pheasant, but from that of all 

 the other gallinse. It is formed of two ranges or tiers of 

 feathers, the upper range lying over the lower, which is the 



