I 648 ]
I.
-i- CRESTED P.
Df iSCRIPTJON.
O R D e R V. GALLINACEOUS.
G enu s XLVII. P E A C O C K .
N° i . Crefted P. N° 2. Japan P.
Var. A. Variegated P. 3. Iris P.
B. White P. 4* Thibet P.
TH E bill in this genus is convex, and ftrong.
Noftrils large.
Head fmall, crefted.
Spurs on the legs.
Feathers above the tail very long, broad, expanfible, confiding
o f ranges of feathers, adorned at their ends with rich ocellated
fpots.
Pavo criftatus, Lin, Syjl. i. p. 267.— Faun. Sun. 197.— Scop. am. i. N° 162.
—Brun. p. 58.— Fri/cb. pi. uS — Kram. cl. p. 355.
Le Paon, Brif. on. i. p. 281. pi. 27.— Buf. oif. ii. p. 288. pi. 10.— PI. ml.
433. (the roale) 434. (the female.)
Peacock, Bait Syn. p. 51. A. 2. p. 183. 18. — Willon. p. 158. pi. 27. —
Shan. Jam. p. 302. N° 23.— Brown. Jam. p. 470.
Br. Muf. Lev. MuJ,\
Q I Z E of a middling turkey : length, from the tip of the bill
^ to the end of the tail, three feet eight inches. The bill is
near
P E A C O C K. 669
near two inches long, and brown : irides yellow : on the crown
is a. kind of creft, cornpofed of twenty-four feathers, fcarcely
webbed, except at the ends, which are gilded green j the (hafts
whitifh : the head, neck, and bread, are green gold : over the eye
is a ftreak of white, and beneath it another : the back and rump
are green gold, glofled with copper, and the feathers are diftinft,
and lay over each other like (hells: above the tail fprings an inimitable
fet of long beautiful feathers,-adorned with a variegated
eye at the end of each ; thefe reach considerably beyond the tail 5
and the longed of them in many birds are four feet and a half in
length. This beautiful train, or tail as it is falfely 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 ■
confifts of eighteen grey brown feathers, one foot and a half long,
marked on the (ides with rufous grey : the fcapulars and leffer
wing coverts are reddilh cream-colour, variegated with black;
the middle coverts deep blue, gloffed with green gold: the
greateft and baftard wing rufous: the quills are alfo rufous; feme
of them variegated with rufous, blackifh, and green : the belly and
vent are greenilh black: the thighs yellowilh: the legs flout;
thofe of the male furnilhed with a ftrong fpur three quarters of an
inch in length; the colour of them grey brown.
The female is rather lefs. The train is very (hort, much more Female.
fo than the tail 5 fcarcely longer than its coverts, and the feathers
not furnilhed with'eyes: the creft on the head the fame : the
rides o f the hejd have a greater portion of white ; the throat and
neck green : the reft of the body and wings' cinereous brown :
the bread fringed with white ;■ the bill the'fame: irides lead-
colour: legs as.'-in the male; but the fpur is generally wanting,
though in Come birds a rudiment of one is feen. In fome male
birds
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