PEACOCK PEALE 209 brood in a year. Some are more or less va- riegated, and occasionally one is seen entirely white. The food consists of grain, seeds, fruits, and insects. The common peacock (P. crista- tus, Linn.) is probably the most magnificent of birds ; its form is elegant, its movements grace- ful, and its plumage resplendent with tints of green, golden, bronze, and blue ; the long tail coverts, which the male can spread like a fan, are beautiful beyond description, with their metallic and iridescent hues, white shafts, vel- vet-black centre, and brilliant terminal eye spots ; the head is surmounted by a very ele- gant tuft of feathers. The female is brownish and sombre, and destitute of the train. The voice is harsh and disagreeable ; its vanity has been proverbial from early antiquity. The peacock was brought to Palestine by the fleets of Solomon, and to Europe at a very early pe- riod ; it is now dispersed in a' domesticated state all over Europe and the United States. In ancient Rome their costliness made them favor- ite luxuries for the table, and a dish of pea- cocks' brains and tongues was regarded as a necessary part of an ostentatious feast ; even in the middle ages they formed a standing dish in grand entertainments; the moderns think their flesh dry and tough, and keep them only as ornaments. In the domesticated state they agree well with turkeys, but not always with other poultry ; it is necessary to protect them from the cold of our northern winters ; in the wild state they have a propensity to roost on the branches of trees, and should therefore have an opportunity to perch ; barley is the most common food given to them, and to this may be added millet and other grains, and legu- minous vegetables ; the females are apt to neg- lect their eggs and young, hence the services of a hen turkey are generally required. In the genus polyplectron the bill is slender, straight, half vaulted at the apex, and curved to the tip, with compressed sides, and covered with plumes at the base ; the tail is lengthened, broad, and rounded, without the long coverts of the pre- ceding genus; the tarsi armed in the males with two or three spurs, in the females tuber- culate ; toes long and slender, the anterior uni- ted at base, and the hind one elevated. About half a dozen species, all showy, are found in mountainous districts of India. The iris pea- cock (P. fiicalcaratum, Temm.) is about as large as a domestic fowl, mottled with ash-col- ored, white, and brown ; wings and tail and their coverts with rows of gilded, bronzed, pur- ple, and reddish spots, with bluish and green reflections. The Thibet peacock (P. Tibeta- nnm, Temm.) is rather larger, and differs prin- cipally from the last in the blackish lines of the plumage ; the tail is reddish, each feather having a double ocellated green spot; it is hardy, and a great favorite in the aviaries of tin.- wealthy Chinese. In the genus crossopti- lon the bill is shorter than the head, broad at the base, with the lateral margins curved, the upper mandible spreading beyond the lower and overhanging it ; tail lengthened and broad, rounded at the end, with the coverts slightly covering the base ; tarsi strong, covered in front with divided scales, and armed with a spur; Thibet Peacock (Polyplectron Tibetanum). hind toe short and elevated ; claws strong and curved ; sides of the head covered with a pap- illose skin; the feathers loose and hair-like. The C. auritum (Hodgs.) is peculiar to the mountains of Thibet, and is very rare; the general color is white, with the primaries brown, the secondaries bluish cinereous, the feet and orbital region red, and the crown blu- ish black, of rigid feathers in vertical laminae ; an ear tuft of long, decomposed white plumes ; the tail with bluish, green, and purplish reflec- tions, the lateral feathers with a subterminal oval white spot. PEACOCK, Thomas Love, an English author, born in Weymouth, Oct. 18, 1785, died in Lon- don, Jan. 23, 1866. He entered the East India house in 1818, and was examiner of India cor- respondence from 1836 till March, 1856, when he retired on a pension. He was a friend of Charles Lamb and Shelley, and was Shelley's executor. In 1804 he published "The Monks of St. Mark," followed by " Palmyra and other Poems" (1806), "Genius of the Thames," a poem (1810), and "The Philosophy of Melan- choly," a poem (1812), none of which attracted particular attention. In 1816 his first novel, "Headlong Hall," won immediate favor; it has been repeatedly republished. This was followed by " Melincourt " (1817), and " Night- mare Abbey" (1818). His most ambitious poem, " Rhododaphne " (1818), was followed by the tales "Maid Marian" (1822), "Misfor- tunes of Elphin" (1829), "Crotchet Castle" (1831), and "Gryll Grange" (1861). In 1862 he published "^Elia Lselia Crispio." His "Collected Works," in three volumes, were published in London in 1875, edited by Henry Cole, with a preface by Lord Houghton, and a biographical notice by his granddaughter Edith Nicolls. PEALE. I. Charles Wilson, an American paint- er, born in Chesterton, Md., April 16, 1741, j died in Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1827. He was by
