Birds The Peacock 
he sees any of these enemies the peacock will give a 
peculiar hoarse cry, and all of his fellows within 
range of the sound will answer, and all of them will 
fly into the trees out of harm’s way. The tiger 
hunters in India know this note of the peacock, and 
often thus discover the dreaded beast’s hiding place. 
Although in the wild state the peafowls nest on the 
ground, they always roost in trees. Their native 
food consists of land snails, lizards, small frogs and 
insects of all kinds. They feed to some extent 
upon lush grass and buds, but prefer grain to all 
else. 
The peacock’s glorious plumage is merely a matter 
of pleasing and attracting to himself his wives, and 
so he is arrayed in his gorgeous feathers only from 
June to December, when they are shed. They are 
ordinarily called tail feathers, but they are really 
the feathers of the tail coverts, which grow out so 
long as to completely hide the tail. Even one of 
these wonderful feathers is worthy the study of an 
artist, so exquisite is it in form and color. 
It is because of his beautiful plumage that the 
peacock became early associated with man, and was 
a domesticated bird in the time of Solomon. Alex- 
ander brought it to Greece when he returned from 
his expedition to India more than 300 years B. C. 
From Greece it was taken to Rome. During ancient 
times the peacock appeared in royal parades, and 
its feathers decorated thrones and shrines. It was 
considered the bird of Juno by the Greeks and 
Romans. The early Christians rejected the heathen 
goddess but retained the bird as an emblem of the 
glorified body. In the days of Rome’s degeneracy, 
the brains and tongues of these birds were served at 
‘feasts. 
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