THE PEACOCK. 189

“When pleased or delighted, the peacock erects his train
. and displays the majesty of his beauty: all his movements
are full of dignity ; his head and neck bend nobly back, his
pace is slow and solemn, and he frequently turns slowly and
gracefully round, as if to catch the sunbeams in every di-
rection, and produce new colours of inconceivable richness.”
These lovely plumes are shed every year, at which time the
bird conceals himself as much as possible. The cry of the
peacock is very harsh and discordant. The female is smaller
than the male, her train is very short, and her whole plu-
mage is of a light brown or cinereous colour: she lays four
or five white spotted eggs, in some secret and sequestered
place, concealing them from the male, who is very apt to
break them. It is said that the hen, when in a state of
nature, lays between twenty and thirty eggs; this evidently
varies, however, according to climate, as in Greece ten or
twelve is the usual number.

Pavo Javanicus is of about the same size as the common
species; the tuft is longer, and it has a naked space on the
cheeks, including the eyes and ears, which is coloured a
light yellow, shading into green towards the fore part; the
head and crest are bluish-green; the rest of the plumage is
of a beautiful metallic brown, varied with blue and green ;

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