284 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
They either fly off as soon as fully fledged, or pine away if kept shut up. Occasion- 
ally one will attach itself to the compound or poultry-yard for a year or two, but 
the bird is not a pleasant pet. If rendered at all familiar, it becomes impudent 
and vicious ; attacking elderly gentlemen or ladies suddenly and treacherously by 
the rear, flying at and severely buffeting and pecking children, lapdogs, &c., and 
sometimes wantonly destroying young poultry. The cry or call of the Burman 
peacock is somewhat harsher than that of the Bengal species.” 
Hybrids between these two species are not rare in India. 
Since the time of Linnaeus only these two species have been generally recognized, 
but at a meeting of the Zoological Society, Dr. Sclater called attention to a third 
distinct species, in some respects intermediate between the other two, and which, 
though long since brought into Europe, and often bred in our menageries, seems 
in some mysterious manner to have escaped the notice of naturalists, and to have 
been left unprovided with a specific name. 
This bird is the black-shouldered peacock of Latham’s General History,” vol. 
viii. p. 114,* where its differences from the true Pavo cristatus are accurately pointed 
out. In the black-winged peacock the metallic green of the back, which forms the 
centre of the train, when extended, is of a more golden hue than in the common 
species Pavo cristatus. The whole of the secondaries, scapulars, and wing-coverts 
are black, with narrow edges of green, which become bluish towards the carpal 
joint ; in this particular it resembles the Javan peacock, and is very distinct from 
the Pavo cristatus, or common species, in which all these feathers are cream 
coloured crossed with black markings. Again, the thighs of the black-winged 
peacock are black, as in the Javan species, whereas in the common breed they are 
always of a pale drab. 
The female of the black-winged species is of a much lighter colouring 
than the common peahen, being almost entirely of a pale cream colour, mottled 
with dark colouring above, and is readily recognizable at first sight. In this 
respect the black-winged is not intermediate between the two other species, since 
the female of the Javan is much more like the male. 
Dr. Sclater asks what is the black- winged peacock : is if a domestic 
variety, a hybrid, or a wild species ? He concludes that it is not a domestic 
variety, because the diflerences are constant and descend to the progeny, and are 
not of the kind induced by domestication. Temminck considered the black- 
shouldered as the true wild species, and our common breed a variety of it ; but 
there are many facts against this view. The common wild species of Hindostan 
is undoubtedly the common Pavo cristatus, and the black-winged is unknown 
in that country. It cannot be a hybrid, because the hybrids bred between the 
Javan and the common species have very different characters altogether. More- 
over, the birds are perfectly fertile, and their characters fixed. If, therefore, it is 
not a variety or a hybrid, it must be a distinct species, and probably occupies a 
distinct geographical position. Dr. Sclater is inclined to regard it as a distinct 
species, and proposes for it the name of Pavo Nigripennis : at the same time 
