terrestrial paradise, I was ignominiously driven
out into solitude, deprived of my elevated rank,
and punished by the ugliness of my feet. But I
still retain the hope of being released from my
obscure abode and restored to the eternal
mansions." The deep regret of the Peacock at the
deformity of its feet, and the cause of the
painful transformation, is also expressed by the
Persian poet, Azz-uddeen Elmocadessi, in an
allegorical poem on flowers and birds.

"Although the Peacock," says Buffon, "has
for a long time been naturalised in Europe, it is
not originally a native of this quarter of the
globe. The East Indies, the clime which
produces the sapphire, the ruby, and the topaz, is
the place of its birth." Alexander the Great
first saw the Peacock on the banks of the Indus,
and was so struck by its beauty that he
prohibited his followers from killing it, under the
heaviest penalties. From India the Peacock
passed into Western Asia, and thence to the
island of Samos, and the parts of Greece where,
during the period of its rarity, it was shown by
the Athenians as an object of curiosity, and
people flocked to see it from all the neighbouring
cities. From Greece the Peacock travelled
westward, till it reached as far as Sweden,
where its plumage became a good deal altered,
and from the shores of Europe it was conveyed
to America, faring well everywhere, save in one
country only, but that from a political cause,
for in Switzerland, after a certain period, every
effort was used to exterminate it, out of hatred
to the Dukes of Austria, whose crest it was,
and against whom the Swiss had revolted.

As of yore, it is in the East that the Peacocks
most abounds, and is most highly prized.
From Guzarat to Bengal, from Lahore to Cape
Comorin, on the coast of Malabar, in Ceylon,
Siam, Camboje, Java, Borneo, and the Philippine
Islands, the Peacock extends his reign, and
wherever the Hindu religion prevails is esteemed
a sacred bird. Vigne, in his Travels in Kashmir,
when at Kerutpor, on the Sutlej, thus
speaks of the Peacock's sacred character: " On
the summit of the bank that rose near the grove
(of mango-trees) was an elegant Hindu temple,
approached by one of the grandest flights of
stone steps I have ever seen. Around it the
alluvium was broken and divided into hillocks
and pinnacles, by the effect of the rains, and on
every pinnacle sat a wild Peacock, who, doubly
protected by his own divine character and the
acknowledged sanctity of the place, displayed
his gorgeous colours to the setting sun, with as
much unconcern as if he had been lording it
over his companions in an English farm-yard."
In many parts of the Deccan the Peacocks fill
the temples themselves, but in Africa, also, they
seem at one time to have been invested with
religious attributes. Witness Andrew Battle,
who, on his voyage to Brazil in 1589, was taken
prisoner by the Portuguese and sent to Angola.
Speaking of a chief called Shillmbansa, uncle to
the King of Angola, whose death occurred while
he was there, he says: " The old lord was buried
in the middle of the towne, and had an hundred
tame Peacocks kept upon his grave; which
Peacocks he gave to his wokero, and they were
called ' Angels Wokero,' that is, Devils' or Idols'
Birds, and were anointed as holy things." That
Peacocks were numerous in that part of Africa
in Battle's time, we have this testimony: " Heer
we found great store of wild Peacocks flying up
and downe the trees, in as great abundance as
other birds."

The Peacock is the " Mohr" of the Mahrattas,
according to Colonel Sykes, who describes the
wild bird as abundant in the dense woods of the
Ghauts; and Colonel Williamson, in his account
of Peacock-shooting in India, states that he has
seen about the passes in the Jungletery district
surprising quantities of pea-fowl. "Whole
woods were covered with their beautiful plumage,
to which the rising sun imparted additional
brilliancy. Small patches of plain amongst the
long grass, most of them cultivated with mustard,
then in bloom, which induced the birds to
feed, increased the beauty of the scene. I speak
within bounds when I assert that there could
not be fewer than twelve or fifteen hundred
pea-fowl, of various sizes, within sight of the spot
where I stood for nearly an hour." Of their
numbers and their extraordinary beauty, in Ceylon,
Sir James Emerson Tennent also speaks in his
admirable volumes. "As we emerge," he says,
"from the deep shade, and approach the
park-like openings on the verge of the low country,
quantities of pea-fowl are to be found either
feeding on the seeds and fallen nuts among the
low 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
helpless bird, when seen in his 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 or leafless
bough, he is certain to choose it for his resting-place,
whence he droops his wings and suspends
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 is 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
great size of the Eastern Peacock is also
mentioned by Sir John Bowring, in his visit to
Siam: " Of enormous size, and with plumage of
singular lustre, he may be seen on the top of a
tall tree, gathering the females around him by
his inharmonious cries." Peacocks are great
favourites in Persia. Morier speaks of them as
numerous in the royal gardens of Teheran; and
Tavernier, who saw plenty of them in that
country, says that the way in which they are
caught is 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