Clafsir. PEACOCK, &c. 211 



India gave us Peacocks ; and we are afllired* they 

 are ftill found in the wild ftate, in vaft flocks, in the 

 iflands of Ceylon and Java. So beautiful a bird, could 

 not long be permitted to be a flranger in the more 

 diftant parts ; for fo early as the days 'of Solomon f, 

 we find, among the articles imported in his Tharpijh 

 navies, Apes and Peacocks. A monarch fo converfant 

 in all branches of natural hiftory, wbo /poke of trees 

 from the cedar of Libanon^ even unto the hyffop that 

 fpringeth out of the wall : who fpoke alfo of beafts a7id of 

 fowl, would certainly not negleft furnifhing his 

 officers with inftrudlions for coUecling every curioficy 

 in the countries they voyaged to, which gave him a 

 knowlege that diftinguiflied him from all the 

 princes of his time, ^lian J relates, that they 

 were brought into Greece from fome barbarous coun- 

 try ; and that they were held in fuch high efteem, 

 that a male and female were valued at Athens at 1000 

 drachma^ or 32/. fj. 10 d. We are alfo told, when 

 Alexander was in India ^^ he found vaft numbers of 

 wild ones on the banks of the Hyarotis^ and was (o 

 ftruck with their beauty, as to appoint a fevere 

 punifhment on any perfon that killed them. 



Our common poultry came originally from Perftii 

 and India. Arifiophanes \ calls the cock 'Trsftrnt'o? oerK, 

 the Perfian bird; and tells us, it enjoyed that kmg^ 

 diOmhtior^ Darius 2iV\di Megabyzus : at this tinie vri 

 know that thefe birds are found in a ftate of nature m 

 jthe ides of finian **, and others of the Indian ocean ^^ 



* Knox's hiji. of C^lon.zZi ■ 



^ Kings i. 10. 



j Mlian de nat. an. lib. V. 21. ^^Curlius, lib. ix. 



t J'vesy tin. 483. 



#? P ampler s voy, i. 392, Lord Anjoiis nio^. 309. 



and 



