422 
P A 
with this difference, that the greateft breadth is fome- 
what further aft and the ftern lower. Its ufe is to convey 
the company either on-fhore or on-board, as it often 
happens that the budgerow cannot come clofe to the 
place where the party wifhes to land, or to embark. 4 
The muorpimkay has already been defcribed under that 
word, vol. xv. 
PAUNDU'RA, a town of Hindooftan, in Oude : twelve 
miles fouth-weft of Gazypour. 
PAUNGAR'TENBERG, a town of Auftria: fix miles 
fouth-weft of Grein. 
PAUNRAN', a town of Hindooftan, in Bengal: thirty 
miles fouth-weft of Nagore. 
PAUNRAN', a town of Hindooftan, in Mohurbunge: 
twenty miles north of Harriopour. 
PAU'NTON, or Great Paunton, a village in the 
county of Lincoln, anciently a Roman town, called Ad 
Pontem; it having formerly had a bridge over the river. 
Its church is one of the fineft old ftruilures in the county. 
Paunton is about four miles fouth of Grantham. 
PAU'NTON (Little), lies to the north of Great 
Paunton, on the fame river. 
PA'VO, f. [called in Greek, rau;, or tkup, perhaps 
from ntva, to ftretch, on account of the amplitude of its 
tail: in the vEolian dialeft it was pronounced neta *; and 
lienee the Latin pavo, and its names in the modern lan¬ 
guages : in Italian, pavone ; in Spanifh pavon ; in French, 
paon ; in German, pfau ; in Polifh, paw ; and in Swedilh, 
pao-fogel. But a modern “Etymological Gleaner” de¬ 
rives both the Latin and Englifh name merely from the 
c\ 3 .ngpeu-hoo which the peacocks repeat in rainy weather.] 
The Peacock; a genus of birds of the order gallinae. 
Generic characters—Head crefted ; bill convex, ftrong ; 
noftrils broad ; quills of the rump elongated, broad, 
expanfible, and fpangled with eyes. There are four fpe- 
cies. 
x. Pavo criftatus, the common peacock; head crefted, 
fpurs fingle. 
Dignity of appearance, noblenefs of demeanour, ele¬ 
gance of form, fweetnefs and delicacy of proportions, 
whatever marks diftindtion and commands refpedt, nature 
feems to have bellowed on the peacock. A light waving 
tuft, painted with the richeft colours, adorns its head, 
and raifes without opprefting it. Its matchlefs plumage 
feems to combine all that delights the eye in the delicate 
tints of the fineft flowers ; all that dazzles in the fpark- 
lir.g luftre of the gems; and all that aftonilhes in the 
grand difplay of the rainbow'. But n,ot only has nature 
united, in the plumage of the peacock, to form a mafter- 
piece ofmagnificence, all the colours of heaven and earth; 
the has felefled, mingled, lhaded, melted them with her 
inimitable hand, and formed an unrivalled pi< 5 ture ; in- 
fomuch that the feathers derive from their mixture and 
their contrail new brilliancy, and effedls of light fo fub- 
lime, that our art can neither imitate nor deferibe them, 
but in a very faint and imperfeft manner. Such appears 
the plumage of the peacock, even when at eafe and alone 
in a fine vernal day. But if a female is prefented fud- 
denly to his view'; if the fires of love, joined to the fecret 
influence of the feafon, rcufe him from his tranquillity, 
and infpire him wdth ardour and new defines; his beauties 
open and expand, his eyes become animated and expref- 
five, his tuft flutters on his head, and expreffes the 
warmth that ftirs within ; the long feathers of the tail, 
riling, difplay their dazzling richnefs; the head and neck, 
bending nobly backwards, trace their lhadow gracefully 
on that Ihining ground, u'here the fun-beams play in a 
thoufand ways, continually extinguilhed and renewed, 
and feem to lend new luftre, more delicious and more 
enchanting; new colours, more variegated and more 
harmonious; each movement of the bird produces new 
ihades, numberlefs clufters of waving fugitive reflections, 
which ever vary and ever pleafe. It is then that the pea¬ 
cock feems to fpreaa out all his beauties, only to delight 
■his female, who, though denied the rich attire, is capti- 
V o, 
vated with its difplay; the livelinefs which the ardour 
of the feafon mingles with his geftures, adds new grace 
to his movements, which are naturally noble and dig¬ 
nified, and which, at this time, are accompanied with a 
ftrong hollow murmur, exprefiive of defire. But this 
brilliant plumage, which furpaffes the glow of the richeft 
flowers, like them alfo is fubjeft to decay; and, each 
year, the peacock Iheds his honours. Then, as if 
afhamed at the lofs of his attire, he avoids being feen in 
this humiliating condition, and conceals himfelf in the 
darkeft retreats, till a new fpring reftores his wonted or¬ 
naments, and again introduces him to receive the homage 
paid to beauty; for he lofes his feathers with the firft fall 
of the leaves, and recovers them again when the buds 
burft forth. It is pretended that the peacock is fenfible 
to admiration, and that a foothing and attentive gaze is 
the moft certain means to engage him to difplay his de¬ 
corations ; but that a look of indifference chills his viva¬ 
city, and makes him clofe his treafures. 
Aftonilhed at the unparalleled beauty of this bird, the 
ancients could not help indulging their lively and 
creative fancy, in accounting for the magnificence of his 
plumage. They made him the favourite of imperial 
Juno, After and wife to Jupiter, and not lefs than the 
hundred eyes of Argus were pulled out to ornament his 
tail; indeed there is fcarcely any thing in nature that 
can vie with the tranfeendent luftre of the peacock’s 
feathers. The changing glory of his neck eclipfes the 
deep azure of ultramarine, and, at the lead evolution, it 
affumes the green tint of the emerald and the purple hue 
of the amethyft. His head, which is fmall and finely 
fhaped, offers feveral curious ftripes of white and black 
round the eyes, and is furmounted by an elegant panache, 
or tuft of feathers, each of which is corhpofed of a flender 
Item and a fmall fiow'er at the top. The female does not 
fhare thefe great honours with the cock, and is generally 
of a light brown ; her creft is very fmall, and fhe has no 
lpur. It has been faid- that both are afhamed of the 
hoarfenefs of their voice and ill-fhapednefs of their feet; 
and indeed they may, for here we ought again to ac¬ 
knowledge the great fyftem of equity and compenfation 
which pervades the whole of nature. The loud feream- 
ings of the peacock are worfe than the liarfh croakings 
of the raven, and a prognoftic for bad weather; and his 
feet, more clumfy than thofe of the turkey, make a fad 
contraft with the elegance of his plumage. The fpread- 
ing of the tail, the fwelling of the throat, neck, and breaft, 
and the puffing noife which they emit, at certain times, 
are proofs that the turkey and the peacock Hand nearly 
allied in the family-chain of animated beings. 
Though the peacock has been long naturalized in 
Europe, it is not a native of this quarter of the globe, 
but feems to have been originally produced in the rnildeft 
parts of the Afiatic and African continents. The Eaft 
Indies, Buffon fays, muft be confidered as the true native 
country of the peacock, whence it palled into the weftern 
parts of Alia. JElian informs us, that Greece received 
this beautiful bird from the Barbarians; who, Buffon 
thinks, were the people of India, fince Alexander, who 
traverfed Afia, firft met with the peacock in that country: 
and befides, in no region of the globe is the tribe fo nu¬ 
merous or fo large as in that oriental clime. Mandeflo 
and Thevenot faw them in profufion in the province of 
Guzerat: Tavernier, in every part of India, but parti¬ 
cularly in the territories of Baroche, Cambaya, and 
Broudra; Francis Pyrard, in the vicinity of Calicut; 
the Dutch, on the Malabar coaft; Lintfcot, in-the ifland 
of Ceylon ; the author of the Second Voyage to Siam, in 
the forelts on the frontiers of that kingdom, on the fide 
of Cambogia, and near the banks of the river Meinam ; 
Gentil, at Iva; Gemelli Careri, in the Calamian iflands, 
lying between the Philippines and Borneo. Indeed this 
beautiful bird muft owe its birth to the luxurious climate 
where nature lavifhly pours her riches; where gold, and 
pearls, and gems, and precious ftones, and all the beauty 
i and 
