P A 
tolling up her chicks with unnatural barbarity, till they 
were dead; and, out of the number which fhe hatches, 
The feldom rears more than one or two. 
Peacocks’ feathers were formerly ufed to make a fort 
of fans ; and they were formed into crowns, like thofe of 
laurel, for the Troubadour poets. Gefner law a web 
whofe woof was iilk and gold thread, and the warp pea¬ 
cocks’feathers. Such no doubt was the robe woven with 
thefe feathers which pope Paul III. fent to king Pepin. 
The Indians ufe them in many of their ornamental 
lirefies; and in China they are given by the emperor to 
f'uch of his courtiers and chiefs of his army, as merit 
spplaufe ; who then wear them in their hats, as diftin- 
gnilhed marks of their mailer’s favour. The princelfes 
of China alfo wear them in their caps. According to 
Aldrovandus, peacocks’ eggs are reckoned by the mo¬ 
derns as improper food ; whereas the ancients put them 
in the firft clafs, and even before thofe of the goofe and 
common hen. This contradiction he explains by faying, 
that they are pleafant to the talle, but pernicious to the 
health. It remains to be inquired whether the tempera¬ 
ture of the climate affeXs their quality. There are two 
other varieties. 
£. P. varius, the variegated peacock : cheeks, throat, 
belly, and wing-coverts, white. This is no other than a 
mixed breed between the white variety and the common 
peacock ; confequently they are to be feen in every pro¬ 
portion of colour between thofe two birds. 
y. P. albus, the white peacock: body entirely white. 
Climate feems to have no lefs influence on the plumage 
of birds than on the fur of animals. We have feen, in 
lame previous articles, that the hare, the ermine, and 
molt other animals, are fubjeX to grow white in cold 
countries, particularly in the winter feafon. There is a. 
variety of the peacock, which feems to have received 
iimilar imprefiions from the fame caufe : and the effeXs 
are even greater, fince the race is permanent ; for the 
whitenefs of hares and ermines is merely temporary, and 
happens only in the winter. The colour of the white 
peacock, on the other hand, is no longer affeXed by the 
ieafon or climate ; and the eggs hatched even in Italy pro¬ 
duce a white brood. The one which Aldrovandus 
caufed to be engraved was reared at Bologna; and this 
circumltance has made him fufpeX that this variety did 
not belong peculiarly to cold countries. Yet moft natu- 
ralifls agree in afligning Norway and other northern 
countries for its native region. It would feem that it 
is there.wild ; for in the winter it travels into Germany, 
where it is commonly caught in that feafon. They are 
indeed found in countries much farther fouth, as in Eng¬ 
land, France, and Italy; but there they are in thedomef- 
tic ftate. 
It required a long period of time, and a Angular con¬ 
currence, of circumftances, to reconcile a bird bred in 
the delicious climates of Afia and India, to the rigours 
of the northern trails. If it had not been carried thi¬ 
ther, it could have migrated to thofe colder climates, 
either by the north of Afia, or by the north of Europe. 
It is not long -fince white peacocks were efteemed as 
rarities, which proves their recent introduXion ; and, on 
the other hand, the Greeks were unacquainted with 
them, fince Ariflotle, having fpoken in his Treatife on 
the Generation of Animals of the variegated colours of 
the peacock, and afterwards of white partridges, white 
ravens, and white fparrows, takes no notice of white 
peacocks. 
2- Pavo bicalcaratus, the Chinefe peacock ; (Peacock 
pheafant, Edw. Iris peacock, Lath. Petit paon de Ma¬ 
lacca, Sonnerat.) Brown ; head fubcrefted ; fpurs two. 
This magnificent bird is jultly confidered as one of the 
greatefi beauties in nature. In fize, it is between that of 
the common peacock and the pheafant; but fu peri or to 
both in elegance and luftre. The bill is blackilh; but 
from the noftrils to the tip of the upper mandible red ; 
if ides yellow ; the feathers on the crown of the head form 
* 
V O. 425 
a longitudinal crefi, of a dark brown colour, growing 
upright, with the tips a little refleXed forward; be¬ 
tween the bill and eyes the fpace is naked, with a 
few fcattered hairs: Tides of the head white: neck 
bright reddifh brown, ftriated acrofs with dufky brown. 
The rell of the plumage is unfpeakably rich and or¬ 
namental: the tail is fprinkled with oval fpangles, on 
a fine purplifli ground, with reflexions of blue, green, 
and burnifiied gold. The efieX of thefe fpangles, or mir¬ 
rors is the more ftriking, as they are defined and diftin- 
guilhed from the ground by a double circle, the one 
black and the other orange. Each quill of the tail has 
two of thefe lucid mirrors cluftered together in pairs, 
the fliaft palling between them. However, as the train or 
falfe tail contains fewer quills than that of the common 
peacock, it is much lefs loaded with fpangles; but to 
compenfate for this, it has a very great number on its 
back and wings, where the-peacGck has none : thofe on 
the wings are rounder, in proportion as they approach 
the neck; and, as the ground-colour of the plumage is a 
beautiful brown, it refembles a fable richly ftrewed with 
fapphires, opals, emeralds, topazes, and other precious 
Hones. The greater quills of the wing are not decorated 
with fpangles; all the reft have each only one ; and their 
colours, whether in the wings or in the tail, do not pene¬ 
trate to the inner furface, which is of an uniform brown 
call. We have endeavoured to give a lively reprefenta- 
tion of this bird on Plate II. but, with all its beauties, it 
is far inferior to the original. 
The female is a third fmaller than the male, and ap¬ 
pears lively and aXive. As in the male, its iris is yellow ; 
but there is no red on its bill, and its tail is much fmaller. 
And, though in the female of this bird the colours are 
more like thofe of the male than in the other peacocks, 
they are more faint and dull, and have not that luftre 
and thofe luminous undulations which produce fo charm¬ 
ing an effeX in the fpangles of the male. It is a remark¬ 
able circumftance, that the male of this fpecies has two 
fpurs, fet one above the other on each leg, while the fe¬ 
male does not appear to have even the rudiments of any. 
3. Pavo Tibetanus, the Thibet peacock: cinereous, 
ftriated with black ; head fubcrefted; fpurs two. This 
is about the fize of the pintado ; length two feet one inch 
and a half. Bill above one inch and a half long, and ci¬ 
nereous; irides yellow. The head, neck, and under 
parts, afli-colour, marked with blackifti lines; the wing- 
coverts, back, and rump, grey, with fmall white dots; 
befides which, on the wing-coverts and back are large 
round fpots of a fine blue, changing in different lights to 
violet and green gold ; the quills and upper tail-coverts 
are alfo grey; marked with blackifti lines; the quills 
have two round blue fpots on each, like thofe of the co¬ 
verts : on the outer webs, and on each tail feather, there 
are four of the fame, two on each fide the web; the mid¬ 
coverts are the longeft, the others fhorten by degrees: 
the legs are grey, furnilhed with two fpurs behind, like 
the Chinefe fpecies : claws blackifti. This inhabits the 
kingdom of Thibet; and the Chinefe give it the name of 
chi n- tchien-lihi. 
4. Pavo muticus, the Japan peacock: crefi: merely 
Tubulate; fpurs none. This is nearly the fize of the 
common peacock; but the bill is larger, and afh-coloured; 
the fpace round the eyes is red; irides yellow; on the 
top of the head is an elegant upright creft, four inches 
in length, and in ftiape not much unlike an ear of corn ; 
the colour mixed green and blue. The top of the head 
and neck are greenifti, marked with fpots of blue, which 
have a ftreak of white down the middle of each : the back 
is greenifli blue : the breaft blue and green gold mixed ; 
the belly, fides, and thighs, alh-colour, marked with 
black fpots, ftreaked with white on the belly : wing-co¬ 
verts and fecondaries not unlike the back; the greater 
quills green, tranfverfely barred with black lines, but 
growing yellowilh towards the ends, where they are 
black; the upper tail-coverts are fewer than thofe of the 
common 
