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POULTRY, THE PEACOCK. 
most usually met with in domestication, the spots being small and white 
on a purplish-gray ground. Rarely these colors are found reversed. So 
blue and dun colored birds with but few and even no spots are sometimes 
seen. There is also a pure white variety, exceedingly rare. The sexes 
are difficult to distinguish, the colors being so nearly alike. The cock 
has more wattle, is often more mincing in his gait, as though walking on 
his toes, and more pugnacious. In fact, their quarrelsome nature and 
(habit of straying has perhaps as much as anything else, prevented their 
becoming more common. 
PEACOCK. 
VI. The Peacock. 
This magnificent bird, as useless as it is beautiful for its tail 
feathers, and a rarity in the barn-yard, is as hardy as a turkey at 
maturity, and the young are not difficult to rear. The hen is very secret 
in stealing her nest in some out-of-the-way place where the male bird 
may not find it, since, if so, he is pretty sure to destroy the eggs. They 
do not commence laying until pretty late in the season, and keep their 
brood out of view until cold weather drives them home for food. The 
male is much given to wandering, often roaming for miles about tho 
country, his strong pinions and immense tail enabling him to fly long 
distances. 
