178 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



I have seen two and three young birds with an adult hen where the Peafowl were 

 really wild. Where protected, they apparently rear larger broods, doubtless because 

 their proximity to the native villages enables them to escape many of their jungle foes. 

 The flight feathers are of a good size even at hatching, and develop so rapidly that the 

 young birds are able to flutter up to a low branch when little over a week old. 



RELATION TO MANKIND 



"For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram : once in three years came the navy 

 of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings 

 of the earth for riches and for wisdom " (I KINGS X. 22, 23). 



In this reference, and the corresponding one in H Chronicles ix. 21, we have 

 perhaps the first mention of the Peacock outside of India. We next find it in the 

 mythology of the early Greeks where the origin of its ocellated train is accredited to 

 Hera. Argus, the son of Inachus, so called from having eyes all over his body, was 

 appointed by Hera to watch the cow into which lo had been transformed. While 

 thus engaged he was slain by Hermes. Hera then transferred his eyes to the tail of 

 the Peacock. 



Aristophanes and other writers mention it, but it was not widely known until after 

 the conquests of Alexander. At the time of Pericles it was so rare that people came 

 from great distances to see it. Elien recorded the fact that its value was about one 

 thousand drachmes, equal to about three hundred and fifty dollars. 



After Alexander introduced the Peacock into Greece, it spread rapidly, as we are 

 told by Aristotle. This naturalist devoted several pages to the bird, stating that it lays 

 twelve eggs. He concludes with a rather amusing paragraph: "They are pestilent 

 things in gardens, doing a world of mischief; they also throw down the tiles and 

 pluck off the thatch of houses ; the Peacock, saith Aldrovandus, though he be a most 

 beautiful bird to behold, yet that pleasure of the eyes is compensated with many 

 ungrateful strokes upon the ears, which are often afflicted with the odious noise of his 

 horrid cry, whence, by the common people in Italy, it is said to have the feathers of an 

 angel, but the voice of a devil, and entrails of a thief. It is said (and I can easily 

 believe it) to produce its life to an hundred years." 



Pliny writes: "The same bird, having lost his tail, when the trees shed their leaves 

 by annual change, ashamed and sorrowing seeks a hiding place, until it once more 

 grows together with the flowers. He lives for five and twenty years, and in the third 

 begins to show his colours. He is reported by authorities to be an animal not only 

 proud but also ill-disposed, just as the goose is bashful." 



In the Roman Empire the bird brings to mind always the platters of Peacock's 

 tongues and brains with which Vitellius and others regaled their guests. One would 

 think that the hard, gristly, bony affair which forms the tongue of a gallinaceous bird 

 would be a pretty poor titbit to set before guests. It could have been hardly more 

 satisfying than the scales on the leg of the bird. 



We read that Hortensius the orator was the first Roman to kill Peacocks for his 

 table. The first Roman breeder of these birds was Aufidius Hurcon, about the time 

 of the last war with the pirates. That he was successful as a fancier may be judged 



