INDIAN PEAFOWL 187 



scapulars this is quite plain, but on the coverts and inner flight feathers it is indistinctly 

 mottled with buffy white. Primaries dull rufous, more or less mottled with dark brown, 

 especially on the outer webs. Secondaries brownish black, outwardly edged with buffy- 

 white mottling. Rump and upper tail-coverts brown, occasionally tinged with metallic 

 green, and more thickly mottled with buffy white than elsewhere on the dorsal plumage. 

 Tail-feathers, eighteen in number, blackish brown, tinged with green on the outer web, 

 sometimes tipped with buff, and the central pairs indistinctly mottled with buffy white. 

 Chin, throat and upper neck white. Lower neck and breast brownish black, much of 

 the visible portion metallic green, with a well-marked terminal fringe of pale buff. 

 Posteriorly on the lower breast the buff increases, soon eclipsing all the green, so that 

 the breast, sides and flanks are wholly of this colour, tinged more or less with rufous. 

 On the belly and under tail-coverts the brown becomes dominant in the form of 

 irregular mottling. 



The bare facial area is of the same general character as in the male, pale sulphury 

 yellow in colour, often with a greenish tinge. Irides dark hazel ; bill dark horn, with 

 the under mandible paler and whitish at base ; legs and feet pale fleshy horn ; spurs 

 developed but short, seldom over 1 1 mm. 



Length, 900 to 1,000 mm. ; bill from nostril, 17 ; wing, 400 ; tail, 355 ; tarsus, 125 ; 

 middle toe and claw, 85 mm. ; weight, 6 to 8^ pounds. 



Chick in Down. — The Peafowl chick is not distinguished by any decided patterns 

 or colours. The top of the head and nape is brownish black with such broad tips of 

 seal brown that this is the dominant colour. On the upper body plumage the brown 

 becomes darker and more rufous, and is obscurely mottled with black. The lateral 

 lines so general among birds of this family are scarcely evident, the brown back merging 

 into the indeterminate buffy brown of the sides, and this into the creamy buff of the 

 ventral surface. The wing and tail-feathers are well-grown at birth and are warm 

 brown mottled with black, many of the coverts having paler buff tips. 



The region of the eye and a line obliquely back from the orbit are dark, while a 

 distinct loral and superciliary line, the face, chin and throat are clear pale creamy buff. 

 The neck and breast are warmer buff, darkened with basal brown. 



Juvenile Plumage. — This plumage bears a general resemblance to that of the 

 adult female, but differs in a number of particulars. The change from down to juvenile 

 and from this to the first-year plumage is slow and rather irregular, both in wild shot 

 and captive birds. A number of specimens show evidence of one, and perhaps two, 

 additional sets of rectrices during this period, each set differing chiefly in length and 

 hardly at all in pattern. The first set is tiny, usually 50 mm. when full grown, and 

 never consists of more than eight pairs. The rectrices which give place to the very 

 different first-year plumage number nine pairs, and may be 165 mm. in length. The 

 fully-developed juvenile garb is a quiet one, dark brown in general, indistinctly clouded 

 or mottled with paler buff. Almost all the feathers of the upper parts are tipped with 

 a broad buff line and a large sub-terminal area of black. The rump and upper tail- 

 coverts even of this immature plumage are unusually long and loose-vaned, with the 

 brownish-buffy colour predominating, and the typically juvenile terminal markings well 

 developed. 



