The COMMON PEACOCK (_Pavo cristatus_) is of a magnificent purplish blue
on the head, throat, and upper breast, overspread with glowing green and
golden lustre; the green feathers on the back are edged and marked with
copper-red; the centre of the back is deep blue, the wing white striped
with black, and the under side black; the quills and tail are light
brown; the long feathers of the latter, which form the graceful train
that renders this bird so conspicuous, being decorated with numerous
ocellated spots. The crest-feathers, from twenty to twenty-four in number,
are bearded at their tips. The eye is dark brown, and the bare ring that
surrounds it whitish; the beak and foot are greyish-brown. The length of
this species is from three and a half to four feet; the wing measures
eighteen and the tail twenty-four inches. The long train-feathers of the
upper tail-covers are from four to four feet and a half in length. The
female is nut-brown on the head and upper throat; the feathers on the
nape are greenish, edged with whitish brown; those of the mantle light
brown, marked with delicate lines; and those on the throat, breast, and
belly white; the quills are brown, and the tail-feathers brown tipped with
white. The hen is from thirty-six to thirty-eight inches long; her wing
measures fifteen and tail from twelve to thirteen inches; her crest is
much smaller and darker than that of her mate.
The general form of this magnificent bird is exceedingly elegant; and when
he elevates and spreads his gorgeous train to the sun, displaying it in
every way, as if conscious of the admiration he is exciting, the beholder
is constrained to admit that there is no creature upon which Nature has
lavished her powers of adornment with a more unsparing hand. The voice of
the Peacock is extremely harsh and disagreeable, closely resembling in
sound the word _paon_, which is its French name. The introduction of this
bird into Europe is ascribed to Alexander the Great, but the exact date at
which it was first imported into England is unknown.
This Pea-fowl inhabits the whole of India Proper, and is replaced in Assam
and the countries to the east by another species. Jerdon tell us, "It
frequents forests and jungly places, more especially delighting in hilly
and mountainous districts; and in the more open and level country, wooded
ravines and river banks are the never-failing resort of some of them.
It comes forth to the open glades and fields to feed in the morning and
evening, retiring to the jungles for shelter during the heat of the day,
and roosting at night on high trees.
"During the courting season," says Jerdon, "the Peacock raises his tail
vertically, and with it of course the lengthened train, spreading it
out and strutting to captivate the hen birds; he has also the power of
clattering the feathers in a most curious manner. It is a beautiful sight
to come suddenly on twenty or thirty Pea fowl, the males displaying their
gorgeous trains, and strutting about in all the pomp of pride before
the gratified females. The train continues to increase in length for
many years, at each successive moult, but it appears to be shed very
irregularly." The breeding of the Pea-fowl in India varies, according to
the locality, from April to October; the eggs, from four to eight or nine,
are laid in a secluded spot.
"In Ceylon," writes Sir Emerson Tennant, "as we emerge from the deep shade
and approach the park-like openings on the verge of the low country,
numbers of Pea-fowl are to be found, either feeding on the seeds and
fallen nuts among the long grass, or sunning themselves on the branches
of the surrounding trees. Nothing to be met with in English demesnes can
give an adequate idea of the size and magnificence of this matchless
bird when seen in its native solitudes. Here he generally selects some
projecting branch, from which his plumage may hang free of the foliage;
and if there be a dead and leafeless bough, he is certain to choose it for
his resting-place, whence he droops his wings and spreads his gorgeous
train, or spreads it in the morning sun to drive off the damps and dews
of night. In some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern province
to which Europeans rarely resort, and where the Pea-fowl are unmolested
by the natives, their number is so extraordinary that, regarded as game,
it ceases to be sport to destroy them; and their cries at early dawn are
so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, and amount to an actual
inconvenience."
The flesh is excellent when served up hot, though it is said to be
indigestible; when cold it contracts a reddish and disagreeable tinge.
Among old English dishes for high festivals the Peacock at one time held a
notable place, and a "Pecock enhakyl" (that is, with the feathers of the
tail extended) is mentioned by Fabian as one of the second course dishes
at the wedding-feast of Henry VI. In an old manuscript in the Library of
the Royal Society is a receipt for the dressing of this noble dish:--"For
a feste royal, Pecokkes schol be dight on this manere: Take and flee off
the skin, with the fedures, tayle, and the neck and hed thereon. Then take
the skynne and all the fedures, and lay hit on a tabel abrode, and straw
thereon grounden comyn. Then take the Pecok and roste him, and endore him
with rawe yolkes of eggs; and when he is rosted take hym off and let hym
cole a whyle, and take and sowe him in his skynne, and gild his combe, and
so serve him forthe with the last cours."
The flesh of the Peacock is said to be dry, but such a quality must have
been amply compensated by the wholesale provision of sauce; as, according
to an old play,[B] among other extravagances enumerated, "The carcasses
of three fat wethers were bruised for gravy to make sauce for a single
Peacock".