THE PEACOCK. 373 
eggs. They are generally hatched about the beginning of November ; and 
from January to the end of March, when the corn is standing, are remarkably 
juicy and tender. When the dry season cumes on, they feed on the seeds 
of weeds and insects, and their flesh becomes dry and muscular. 
The train of the male Peacock, although popularly called its tail, is in 
reality composed of the upper tail-coverts, which are enormously lengthened, 
and finished at their extremities with broad rounded webs, or with spear- 
shaped ends. ‘he shafts of these feathers are almost bare of web for some 
fourteen or fifteen 
inches of their length, 
and then throw out 
a number of long loose 
vanes of a light cop- 
pery green. These are 
very brittle, and apt to 
snap off at different 
lengths. In the central 
feathers the extremity 
is modified into a wide 
flattened —_ battledore- 
shaped form, each bar- 
bule being coloured 
with refulgent emerald 
green, deep violet pur- 
ple, greenish bronze, 
gold and blue, in such 
a manner as to form 
a distinct “eye,” the 
centre being violet vu 
two shades, surrounded 
with emerald, and the 
other tints being ar- 
ranged concentrically 
around it. In the fea- 
thers that edge thetrain 
there is no “ eye,” the 
feathers coming to a 
point at the extremity, 
and having rather wide 
but loose emerald- 
green barbules on its PEACOCK.—(#avo cristatus.) 
outer web and a few 
scattered coppery barbules in the place. of the inner web. The tail-feathers 
are only seven or eight inches in length, are of a greyish brown colour, and 
can be seen when the train is erected, that being their appointed task. 
THE PHEASANTS come next in order, and the grandest and most imposing 
of this group, although there are many others that surpass its brilliant 
colouring, is the ARGUS PHEASANT so called in remembrance of the ill-fated 
Argus of mythology, whose hundred eyes never slept simultaneously until 
charmed by the magic lyre of Mercury. . 
This magnificent bird is remarkable for the very great length of its tail- 
feathers and the extraordinary development of the secondary feathers of the 
wings. While walking on the ground, or sitting on a bough, the singular 
length of the feathers is not very striking, but when the bird 
spreads its wings, as shown in the figure, they come aut in all their 
