THE PEACOCK 37 



false tail, like the chignon of twenty years ago, or 

 the fringe of the present day ; the true tail is under 

 it, and serves no purpose but to support it. Now 

 the peacock lives on the ground, among scrub and 

 brushwood , haunted by j ackals and wild cats. They, 

 like soldiers in khaki, reconnoitre him in a uniform 

 expressly designed to elude the eye, but he flaunts 

 a flag resplendent with green and gold. And when 

 his one chance of life lies in springing nimbly from 

 the ground and committing himself to his strong 

 wings, he must lift and carry this ponderous para- 

 phernalia with him. And the terrible Bonelli's 

 eagle is soaring above. But all is risked proudly 

 for the sake of the morning hour in the glade where 

 the ladies assemble. And the peacock is only one 

 of many. Not to mention the lyre bird, the Argus 

 pheasant, the bird of paradise, and other splendid 

 examples, there are common dicky-birds which point 

 the moral and adorn the tail as emphatically. 



If the tail is a rudder, where should you look to 

 find it in its most simple and efficient form but 

 among the flycatchers, which make their living by 

 aerial acrobatics after flies ? Yet this family seems 

 to be peculiarly prone to the vanity of a stylish tail. 

 The paradise flycatcher flutters two streamers a foot 

 long, like white ribbons, behind it. The fantail 

 could hide behind its own fan. The bee-eater has 

 the two central feathers prolonged and pointed. 

 The drongos, which are flycatchers in habit, wear 

 their tails very long and deeply forked ; and one of 



