X LIST OF COLOURED PLATES 



Plate LXXXVII. EVOLUTION OF THE EYES ON A PEACOCK'S TRAIN 



Painted by H. Gronvold. Facing page 176 



The beginnings of these marvellous ocelli must have been first visible on the plumage 01 

 some far-distant ancestor of all peafowl, perhaps a hundred thousand years ago. Yet to-day 

 in the train of an individual bird we may clearly trace their development of pattern and pigment. 



Beneath one of the pale, terminal cross bands which we find on the smaller feathers, there 

 appears (on an adjoining feather somewhat farther down the train) a blur of chestnut, which 

 draws gradually together, and, concentrating, reaches up the shaft into a slowly expanding, 

 terminal area of green. The chestnut is soon cut off at the bottom by the surrounding green 

 zone, and now shows as a small monochrome fan of warm colour. In the heart of this a tiny 

 speck of metallic blue develops and widens, and within this, in turn, a dot of black. Here we 

 have the eye in its simplest form — shall we imagine that it corresponds to that which peafowl 

 displayed ten thousand years ago ? The change to the fully perfected eye is chiefly by enlarge- 

 ment, by a slight bilobing of the pupil, and by the addition of lavender, golden, copper and 

 emerald frames. 



Plate LXXXVIII. WHITE PEACOCK .... Facing page 184 



Painted by C. R. Knight. 



These rarely beautiful birds are never found in a wild state, but are bred in captivity from 

 birds showing a few white feathers. When at their best, these peafowl show hardly a particle 

 of pigment; even the feather eyes being without their metallic copper and emerald. When 

 the train is spread, however, and the light is just right, every detail of the eye pattern can be 

 seen, appearing and reappearing like the successive ripples in watered silk. 



Plate LXXXIX. BLACK-WINGED PEAFOWL . . . Facingpage 186 



Painted by G. E. Lodge. 



This is a very remarkable sport or mutation occurring sporadically among domestic Indian 

 birds, sometimes one or two in a whole brood. The cock is darker and the hen and chicks 

 much whiter than wild birds, the pale colour in the two latter cases making it impossible for 

 this form to hold its own against the many enemies of a life in the wild. Although the Black- 

 winged Peacock cannot stand cold as well as the normally coloured birds, yet, in warm climates, 

 it has been known to possess the advantage in courtship, and thus gradually to replace all the 

 ordinary birds in a flock. 



Plate XC. GREEN PEAFOWL Pavo muticus Linnaeus . . . Facingpage 190 



Painted by G. E. Lodge. 



At early dawn, before the heavy dew has dried from the foliage of the IVTalay jungles, the 

 peafowl awaken on their roosts on tall, bare trees, and standing in the first rays of the sun, 

 shake a myriad drops from their plumage. They walk up and down the lofty branches, and 

 half-spread their wings until the great plumes are dry. Then, with a single spring, they leap 

 outward into space and scale down, down to the narrow opening among the trees which becomes 

 a river. 



Plate XV. PLUMAGES OF THE HIMALAYAN IMPEYAN PHEASANT 



LopkopkorziS ijnpeyanits (Latham). (Omitted from Vol. I., p. 142.) . Facing page 216 



Painted by H. Gronvold. 



Fig. I. Chick in natal down, with the wing- and tail-feathers just sprouting. 

 Fig. 2. Male in full Juvenile plumage. 

 Fig. 3. Male in First Year Plumage. 



A. Dorsal Feather of First Year Plumage. 



B. Dorsal Feather of Juvenile Plumage. 



