I. Harman—The Peacock as a Pet



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Yet, though normally such a shy bird, the Peacock is intelligent

and soon knows when it can trust man. In the drier parts of north¬

western India, where it is introduced, it has become very common, and

as sentiment and religion of the natives combine to afford the bird

complete protection, it has become tame in that area, living in droves

on the outskirts of villages and feeding in the fields with an almost

complete disregard of passers-by.


The Peacock is polygamous, and the harem consists of from two

to five hens, and he takes no share in the family duties. The nest of the

Peahen is simply a hollow scraped in the ground and more or less filled

with leaves, small sticks, grass, and other debris. Sometimes, however,

a bird will nest in hollows of tree-branches or even in deserted Vulture’s

nests. I should like to know how the young birds get down in the latter

case, as being active they would be sure to go “ overboard ” when a

few days old.


The Peacock has never become more than partially domesticated,

and this may be due to the fact that, like the Turkey, the chicks are

very delicate creatures until about half grown up, and have to be

protected from the rigours of our climate, which, however, the adult

birds stand so well. Peacocks reared in a park or farmyard become very

tame and make themselves at home, and seldom evince the least desire

to stray, yet they never adapt themselves to domestication as the

offspring of the Red Jungle Fowl has done.


I might mention here that the wonderful “ tail ” which the Peacock

displays is not a tail at all, but is composed of enormously elongated

tail-covert feathers, and the true tail is short and stiff and is said to help

to support the train. The spreading of the train is primarily intended

to fascinate the Peahen during the courting season, but the Peacock

frequently spreads it for human admiration when no hens are in sight.

The bird also spreads the train when attacking an enemy.


The marvellous glittering iridescence of the Peacock’s feathers is

another extremely interesting point. There is not a scrap of colouring

matter in any of them, and the colour is purely reflected light. The

feathers are covered with myriads of tiny prisms. These are arranged

in definite patterns, and when the white light strikes them it is broken

up into the seven colours of the spectrum—violet, indigo, blue, green,



