THE PEA FOWL 



179 



hung outside, at all outrivalled the brilliant display of 

 Barnum's Museum, in Broadway. 



So charming is the perfect combination of grace and 

 splendor diplayad by these most lovely oreatures, so 

 exoellent is their flesh, so hardy are they in their 

 adult state, that were it not for certain inconveniences 

 attendant upon keeping them, and also, perhaps, for 

 the indifferenoe with which everything not rare is apt 

 to be regarded by us, they would be sought after as 

 never-tiring objects wherewith to gratify the sense of 

 sight. Who does not remember the thrill of delight 

 with which, in childhood, he first gazed upon their 

 brilliant gorgeousness ? Peacocks and gold fill our 

 youthful imaginations as fit elements of the magnifi- 

 cence of Solomon ; and no fable more fitly chose its 

 decorations than that whioh attached these feathered 

 gems, in association with the many-colored Iris, to the 

 train of the imperial Juno, who adorned its tail with 

 the hundred eyes of Argus — eyes which the poet calls 

 "star-like gems." Even the hen of the pea fowl, 

 though sober in her coloring, is harmoniously shaded, 

 and every movement is coincident with the line of 

 beauty. 



But the most extraordinary peacock in the world, 

 altogether unique, and likely to remain so, whose va- 

 lue reduces that of the Athenian birds to a mere 

 nothing, and which is only to be approached in this 

 respect by the goose which lays golden eggs, if we 

 could find her, is kept at Windsor Castle, and long 

 may her Majesty, Q,ueen Victoria, continue in posses- 

 sion of it. Not being larger than an ordinary hen, it 

 consumes but little food ; and does no mischief in the 

 gardens, but rarely permitted to go abroad. It would 

 be cheap at d£30,000 ; for, independent of its worth as 

 a trophy, and the strange history attached to it, its 

 tail is made up of diamonds, and the rest of its body 

 is composed of other costly materials, of which gold is 

 the least precious ! It is a specimen of ornamental 

 poultry, and not unsuitable, perhaps, to the monarch 



