the peacock, in ornithology; a genus belonging to the order of gallinaceous birds. The head is covered with feathers which bend backwards; the feathers of the tail are very long, and beautifully variegated with eyes of different colours. Latham enumerates eight species:
1. The cristatus, or common peacock of English authors, has a compressed crest and solitary spurs. It is about the size of a common turkey; the length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail being three feet eight inches. The bill is nearly two inches long, and is of a brown colour. The irides are yellow. On the crown there is a sort of crest, composed of 24 feathers, which are not webbed except at the ends, which are gilded green. The shafts are of a whitish colour; and the head, neck, and breast, are of a green gold colour. Over the eye there is a streak of white, and beneath there is the same. The back and rump are of a green gold colour, glossed over with copper; the feathers are distinct, and lie over each other like shells. "Above the tail springs an inimitable fet of long beautiful feathers, adorned with a variegated eye at the end of each; these reach considerably beyond the tail; and the longest of them in many birds are four feet and a half in length. This beautiful train, or tail as it is falsely called, may be expanded quite to a perpendicular upwards at the will of the bird. The true tail is hid beneath this group of feathers, and consists of 18 grey brown feathers, one foot and a half long, marked on the sides with rufous grey; the scapulars and lesser wing coverts are reddish cream-colour, variegated with black; the middle coverts deep blue, glossed with green gold; the greatest and bailard wing rufous; the quills are also rufous; some of them variegated with rufous, blackish, and green; the belly and vent are greenish black; the thighs yellowish; the legs stout; those of the male furnished with a strong spur three quarters of an inch in length; the colour of them grey brown."
The female is rather less than the male. The train is very short, being much shorter than the tail, and scarcely longer than its coverts; neither are the feathers furnished with eyes. The crest on the head is similar to that on the head of the male; the sides of the head have a greater portion of white; the throat and neck... are green: the rest of the body and wings are cinereous brown: the breast is fringed with white: the bill is the same: the irides are lead-colour: the legs are as in the male; but the spur is generally wanting, though in some birds a rudiment of one is seen. In some male birds, all the wing coverts and scapulars are of a fine deep blue green, very glossy; but the outer edge of the wing and quills are of the common colour.
This bird, now so common in Europe, is of eastern origin, being a native of India. They are found wild in the islands of Ceylon and Java in the East Indies, and at St Helena, at Barbuda, and other West India islands. They are not natural to China; but they are found in many places of Asia and Africa. They are, however, nowhere so large or so fine as in India, in the neighbourhood of the Ganges, from whence, by degrees, they have spread into all parts, increasing in a wild state in the warmer climes; but wanting some care in the colder regions. In ours, this bird does not come to its full plumage till the third year. The female lays five or six greyish white eggs; in hot climates 20, the size of those of a turkey. These, if let alone, she lays in some secret place, at a distance from the usual resort, to prevent their being broken by the male, which he is apt to do if he find them. The time of sitting is from 27 to 30 days. The young may be fed with curd, chopped leeks, barley-meal, &c. moistened; and are fond of grasshoppers, and some other insects. In five or six months they will feed as the old ones, on wheat and barley, with what else they can pick up in the circuit of their confinement. They seem to prefer the most elevated places to roost on during night; such as high trees, tops of houses, and the like. Their cry is loud and inharmonious; a perfect contrast to their external beauty. They are caught in India, by carrying lights to the trees where they roost, and having painted representations of the bird presented to them at the same time; when they put out the neck to look at the figure, the sportsman flips a noose over the head, and secures his game (A). In most ages they have been esteemed as a dainty food. Hortensius gave the example at Rome, where it was carried to the highest luxury, and sold dear (B): and a young pea-fowl is thought a dainty even in the present times.
The life of this bird is reckoned by some at about 25 years; by others 100.
2. The variegated peacock, is nothing else but a mixed breed between the common and white peacock; and of course varies very considerably in colour.
3. The white peacock is, as its name imports, entirely white, not excepting even the eyes of the train, which it is nevertheless easy to trace out. This variety is in Latham's opinion more common in England than elsewhere. We are informed by the same author, that two instances have occurred to him of the females of this species having the external marks of the plumage of the male.
4. The pavo muticus is about the size of the crested peacock; but the bill is larger and ash-coloured: the irides are yellow, and round the eyes is red; on the top of the head is an upright crest four inches long, and shaped somewhat like an ear of corn. The colour is green mixed with blue. The top of the neck and head are greenish, marked with spots of blue, which have a streak of white down the middle of each: the back is greenish blue: the breast is blue and green gold mixed: the belly, sides, and thighs are ash-colour, marked with black spots, streaked with white on the belly: the wing coverts and secondaries are not unlike the back: the greater quills are green, transversely barred with black lines, but growing yellowish towards the ends, where they are black: the upper tail coverts are fewer than those of the common peacock, but much longer than the tail; they are of a chestnut brown, with white shafts, and have at the end of each a large spot gilded in the middle, then blue, and surrounded with green: the legs are ash-coloured, and not furnished with spurs, or they have been overlooked by those who have seen them.
The female is smaller than the male; and differs in having the belly quite black, and the upper tail coverts much shorter: the tail is green, edged with blue, and white shafts. It inhabits Japan, and is only known to Europe by means of a painting, sent by the emperor of Japan to the pope.
So beautiful a species of birds as the peacock could not long remain a stranger in the more distant parts in which they were produced; for so early as the days of Solomon, we find, among the articles imported in his Tarshish navies, apes and peacocks. A monarch so conversant in all branches of natural history, "who spoke of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; who spoke also of beasts and of fowl," would certainly not neglect furnishing his officers with instructions for collecting every curiosity in the countries they voyaged to, which gave him a knowledge that distinguished him from all the princes of his time. Aelian relates, that they were brought into Greece from some barbarous country; and that they were held in such high esteem, that a male and female were valued at Athens at 1000 drachmae, or 32l. 5s. 10d. Their next step might be to Samos; where they were preserved about the temple of Juno, being the birds sacred to that goddess; and Gellius, in his Noctes Atticae, c. 16, commends the excellency of the Samian peacocks. It is therefore probable, that they were brought there originally for the purposes of superstition, and afterwards cultivated for the uses of luxury. We are also told, when Alexander was in India, he
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(A) Tavernier's Travels, vol. iii. p. 57. The inhabitants of the mountains on both sides of the Ganges catch them with a birdlime, prepared from the milky juice of two sorts of trees (ficus religiosa & Indica.—Linn.), boiled with oils into a confluence; which proves sufficiently tenacious to entangle them, or the largest birds.—Phil. Transl. vol. lxxi. p. 376.
(B) They must have been in plenty notwithstanding, or the Emperor Vitellius could not have got sufficient for his large dish, called the Buckler of Minerva, which, history says, was filled with the livers of peacocks, flamingoes, and brains of pheasants and peacocks. found vast numbers of wild ones on the banks of the Hyarotis; and was so struck with their beauty, as to appoint a severe punishment on any person that killed them.
Peacocks crests, in ancient times, were among the ornaments of the kings of England. Ernald de Acelent was fined to king John in 140 palfries, with falcons, lorans, gilt spurs, and peacocks crests, such as would be for his credit. See Plate CCCLXXXI.
5. The pavo bicalcaratus, is larger than the common pheasant. The bill is black, but from the nostrils to the tip of the upper mandible red. The irides are yellow. The feathers on the crown of the head are sufficiently long to form a crest, of a dull brown colour. The space between the bill and eyes is naked, with a few scattered hairs: the sides of the head are white: the neck is bright brown, striated across with dusky brown: the upper parts of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, are dull brown, dotted with paler brown and yellowish; besides which, each feather is marked near the end with a roundish large spot of a gilded purple colour, changing into blue and green in different lights: the lower part of the back and rump are dotted with white: all the under parts are brown, striated transversely with black: the quills are dusky; the secondaries are marked with the same spot as the rest of the wing: the upper tail coverts are longer than the tail, and each marked at the end with a spot like the wing feathers, each of which is surrounded first with a circle of black, and ultimately with an orange one: the legs and claws are brown, and on the back part of each leg are two spurs, one above the other.
The female is a third smaller than the male. The head, neck, and under parts are brown; the head smooth: the upper parts are also brown, and the feathers marked with a dull blue spot, surrounded with dirty orange: the feathers which cover the tail are similar; but marked at the end with an obscure dull oval spot of blue: the legs have no spurs.
This species is of Chinese origin, and some of them have been brought from China to England alive, and have been for some time in the possession of Dr James Monro. The male is now in the Leverian Museum, in the finest preservation.
Somerset observes, that the bird from whence his description was taken had two spurs on one leg, and three on the other. This must surely be a lyse nature; especially as he says, it is the same as that in Edw. pl. 67.
6. The pavo tibetanus, is about the size of a pintado, being about two feet and nearly two inches long. The bill is above an inch and a half long, and cinereous: the irises are yellow: the head, neck and under parts are ash coloured, marked with blackish lines: the wing coverts, back and rump, are grey, with small white dots; besides which, on the wing coverts and back are large round spots of a fine blue, changing in different lights to violet and green gold: the quills and upper tail coverts are also grey, marked with blackish lines; the quills have two round blue spots on each, like those of the coverts; on the outer webs, and on each tail feather, there are four of the same, two on each side the web; the middle coverts are the longest, the others shorten by degrees: the legs are grey, furnished with two spurs behind, like the last species: the claws are blackish. This species inhabits the kingdom of Thibet. The Chinese give it the name of Chin-tchien-Khi.
ichthyology. See Peacockfish.
astronomy, a constellation in the southern hemisphere, unknown to the ancients, and not visible in our latitude. It consists of 14 stars, of which the names and situations are as follow:
| Longitud. | Latitude | |-----------|----------| | | |
See Astronomy, no 456.