PEACOCK. 119 



Le petit Paon de Malacca, Son. Voy. Ind. ii. 173. pi. 99. 

 Peacock Pheasant, Edw. pi 67. 69. 

 Iris Peacock, Gen. Syn. iv. 673. 



SIZE of a Dunghill Cock, or bigger. Bill grey, tip dusky; 

 irides yellow; between the bill and eye, and round the latter, ash- 

 colour, and almost bare, being only covered with a few scattered 

 hairs; head, neck, and back the same, mottled with fine lines, and 

 dots of white ; behind the neck some dusky spots; chin and throat 

 nearly white ; breast, and all beneath, marked with greyish white 

 and brown, in waves, two or three on each feather; those of the 

 rump, sides of the tail, and coverts with whitish margins, and within 

 them numerous dots of white; wings marbled with whitish, on which 

 are rows of gilded, bronzed, purple red, spots, about the size of a 

 silver penny ; these are less regular on the coverts, and smaller, and 

 all of them changing into blue and green in different lights ; the 

 back, between the shoulders, is also spotted ; the tail feathers, or 

 rather the elongated coverts, have likewise the same lucid spots, but 

 more oval, one on each side of the shaft, not far from the end; the 

 legs are brown, and on the back part of each two spurs, one above 

 the other. 



The female is smaller by one-third, and the colours less vivid ; 

 the eyes on the wings much the same ; tail brown, appearing between 

 the coverts, which are less numerous, and only here and there one 

 charged with splendid glossy spots, so conspicuous in the male ; and 

 which in this sex are comparatively more dull ; the legs not furnished 

 with spurs.* 



These beautiful birds inhabit China and India, from both which 

 they are now and then brought alive to Europe/)- The bird described 

 by Sonnerat had three spurs on one leg, and two on the other, but 

 this was most probably a Lusus Nature. In the drawings of Sir J. 



* I observe one, supposed a female, in drawings, having two spurs, probably a young male. 

 t One of these was in the Menagerie of the late Duchess Dowager of Portland, alive, 

 some years since. 



