CHAPTEK XXYI. 
THE PEAFOWL. 
ri'^HE Peafowls, wliicli are all natives of India, China, Java, and the Philippines, 
form a very well marked group of birds, knov/n to ornithologists as constituting 
the genus Pavo. These fowls are distinguished from the other gallinaceous birds 
by having the head ornamented with an erect crest of feathers of a peculiar struc- 
ture. The space around the eye is naked ; the true tail of moderate length, com- 
prised of eighteen feathers ; the feathers of the hack and upper tail coverts are of 
great length, and beautifully ocellated. The tarsi or shanks are long and spurred 
in the male. 
It is usually stated that but two species are knovm, — the common peacock, Pavo 
cristatus, and the Javan species, Pavo muticus. But Dr. Sclater has recently 
described, under the name of the black-winged peafowl, Pavo nigripennis, a 
third which seems perfectly distinct from the two former. The common Peafov/1, 
Pavo cristatus, has been known from the earliest periods ; we are informed that 
the navy of Solomon brought to him every three years peacocks from Tarshish, 
1 Kings X. 22. Peafowls were known to the Greeks, and largely bred by the 
Komans, The bird in its wild state is a native of the peninsula of India, the 
Himalayan mountains, up to a height of several thousand feet, the jungles in 
the salt range of the Punjauh, and the island of Ceylon. Jerdon, in his admi- 
rable work, thus describes it : — 
“ Male with the head, neck, and breast rich purple, with gold and green reflec- 
tions ; hack green, the feathers scale-like, with coppery edges ; the wings vAth the 
inner coverts, including the shoulder, white, striated with black ; the middle coverts 
deep blue ; the primaries and tail chesnut ; abdomen and vent black ; the train chiefly 
green, beautifully ocellated ; the thigh coverts yellowish grey ; head with a crest of 
about twenty-four feathers, only webbed at the tip, and green with blue and gold 
reflections. Bill horny brown ; orbits naked whitish ; the irides of dark brown ; 
legs horny brown. Length to the end of the true tail, to 4 feet ; wing 18 inches ; 
tail 24 ; the long train sometimes measures 4J feet, and even more. 
The female or Peahen is chesnut 'hiwn, the upper plumage light hair-brown, 
with faint wavings, increased on the upper tail-coverts ; quills brown ; some of the 
wing -coverts mottled dusky and whitish ; tail deep brown with whitish tips ; chin 
