GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. II 



parts are black with a green gloss, except the 

 thighs, which are light drab. 



The hen has a chestnut head and white throat. 

 Her general colour is drab, with the quills and tail 

 darker, and the lower part of the breast buffy 

 white ; the neck has; a strong green gloss, as has 

 also the tip of the crest. 



Young cocks are at first like hens, but have a 

 certain amount of black pencilling ; their chestnut 

 quills will also distinguish them, at once. They 

 are three years in coming into full colour. 



Both sexes have daik eyes and daik horn-colour 

 bills and feet. A fine cock may measure more than 

 seven feet to the end of his train ; the real tail is 

 twenty inches in length only ; and the closed wing 

 about two inches less. The shank will be about 

 five and three-quarter inches long, and the bill 

 nearly two from the gape. 



The hen is a little over a yard long, and has a pro- 

 portionately shorter true tail, this being only 

 thirteen inches, and the closed wing sixteen ; the 

 shank about five only. 



This is the peacock par excellence, for although 

 confined as a wild bird to India and Ceylon, it 

 has been domesticated for many centuries, and is 

 known all over the civilised world. 



It does not ascend the Himalayas, as a rule, 

 over 2,000 feet, though it may range above 5,000 

 on the Nilgiris ; which makes it somewhat remark- 

 able that it can bear the English climate in winter 

 without protection. 



In many places it is held sacred and found in a 

 semi-domesticated condition, this being the case 



