The wild Turkey is allowed to be much more beautiful than any of the domestic varieties, though some approach in the colours of their plumage, but not in the metallic brilliancy of the tints, which are bronze, violet, green, and purple, according to the incidence of the light. The wild breed may always be distinguished by the tip of the feathers forming the tail-coverts being destitute of a white terminal edge, which is a marked feature in domestic birds, and by the narrowness of the white band at the tip of the tail itself.

Beautiful as is the common wild Turkey, it is far exceeded by its congener the HONDURAS TURKEY, (Meleagris ocellata,) which rivals the peacock in its gorgeous dress, refulgent with golden green, bronze, and blue.

The Guinea Fowl, or Pintado, belonging to the genus Numida, is characterized by the head being destitute of feathers, often surmounted with a conical protuberance, and by fleshy wattles depending from the cheeks. The tail is short, and pointed downwards; the tarsi without spurs; the general contour of the body plump and rounded.

The COMMON GUINEA Fowl (Numida meleagris) is too well known to require description; it was the true meleagris of the ancients, who imported it from Africa in abundance, as an addition to the luxuries of the banquet. In its native state, it associates in immense flocks, which are shy and timid, and fly low, but straight forwards, like our partridges. Their rapidity in running is very great, but not capable of being long sustained; hence, as La Vaillant observes, who saw them in great numbers about the Droog river, when frightened from the trees they trust to their speed, and after running for some distance attempt to take wing again, which gives the dogs the opportunity of seizing them; so that they may be caught without firing a shot. They roost at night on the trees, but their food is obtained on the ground, where

they pass the day. The Guinea Fowl, like the turkey, is now widely diffused, being kept in a domestic state in almost every part of the world. It is not, however, so tame as the turkey, and submits to restraint with difficulty; it prefers to ramble about at will, selecting a concealed spot in which to breed, and often brings home an unexpected brood. Its singular note, like the noise of a wheel turning on an ungreased axle-tree, or the creaking of rusty hinges, all our readers have heard. Its flesh is much esteemed.

A small group of birds, two distinct species being all at present known, next claim notice. These birds are among the most gorgeous and beautiful of the feathered race, and have been equally admired in all ages; one species, long naturalized in Europe, forms the most striking ornament of our poultry-yards and aviaries.

The distinguishing characters of the Peacocks (Pavo) consist in the smallness of the head, which is furnished with a peculiar and beautiful crest, and in the excessive elongation of the tail-coverts, which are loose and flowing in their texture, and are capable of being elevated and spread out, so as to form one of the most magnificent displays of splendour and beauty in nature. The bill is moderate; the legs are strong, and armed with a stout spur; the hind toe very short.

The COMMON or CRESTED PEA FOWL (Pavo cristatus) is a native of India; where, in some districts, it is very abundant. The copses and jungles on the banks of the larger rivers, and especially of the Ganges, are favourite localities. Latham says, that all the jungles in the Nabob of Oude's territories are full of Peacocks; and that the woods about the passes in the Jungleterrey district, especially Tehriagully, are stated to be covered with their exquisite plumes, not less than twelve or fifteen hundred of various sizes having been seen near one spot within an hour. In the Bhaughulpore district, not far from Termbony Nullah, they are also in great plenty,

but the pursuit of them is attended with much danger, in consequence of the tigers, which are also abundant in the same vicinity. Colonel Sykes (see Zool. Proceed. vol. ii. p. 151) observes, that "the wild Pea Fowl is abundant in the dense woods of the Ghauts; it is readily domesticated, and many hindoo temples in the Deckhan have considerable flocks of them. On a comparison with the bird as domesticated in Europe, the latter is found, both male and female, to be absolutely identical with the wild bird of India." We have seen it in collections from the Travancore country.

The Pea Fowl, though roosting on the tallest trees, seeks its food and constructs its nest on the ground; the place chosen for incubation is concealed among close bushes, and a few sticks and twigs put together with leaves are the receptacle for the eggs; these are twelve or fifteen in number. The female sits very assiduously.

The Pea Fowl was well known to the ancients, and is mentioned both in the sacred writings and the classics. In the first book of Kings, ch. x. 22, we find Peacocks, with other products of India, brought, during the reign of Solomon, by the navy of Tarshish. In the second book of Chronicles, ix. 21, the same fact is again alluded to.

In that sublime chapter, the thirty-ninth of Job, which displays the creative power of God as exhibited by the most striking of the living objects of nature, the plumes of the Peacock are referred to as evidences of His wisdom and omnipotence; "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the Peacocks?" ver. 13. Take, reader, one of these plumes into your hand, and examine its structure; mark the slender, tapering shaft, fringed with long, loose, silky barbs, glittering, now green, now golden, with metallic effulgence; mark the ocellated disc with which the whole is tipped; how can words describe its everchanging hues! purple, deep and intense, encircled by emerald green, around which runs a broad expanse of bronze, with a narrow margin of golden green, the whole being fringed with waving threads of varying hues, purple or green, or bronze. But who can copy these refulgent tints, this gem

like lustre art shrinks from the attempt. Ask the atheist what he thinks of such a piece of workmanship? Will he dare to call it the effect of chance?

The Peacock appears to have been first introduced into Greece by Alexander the Great, who obtained it during his Indian expedition; subsequently it spread throughout Europe, and in the degenerate days of Rome appears to have been very common; at least it was lavishly slaughtered to swell the feasts of sensualists, whose pleasures were too sordid and low to allow of other and better sentiments than those which degrade and brutalize. To say nothing of the feasts of Hortensius and others, the Emperor Vitellius had a dish, called the Buckler of Minerva, which was said to be filled with a preparation of the livers of scari, (a species of fish, perhaps char,) the tongues of flamingoes, and the brains of

Peacocks.

The origin of the term Pea Fowl we are not able to explain, except it be a corruption of the Latin Pavo, which itself is borrowed from the Greek word Taws, or

Taov, the name by which it was known in Greece, and which alludes to its habit of unfolding its gorgeous plumes.

The manners of this superb bird in a state of domestication are familiar to all; but there is one point, as it respects its appetite, which is not, we believe, generally known. All our domestic poultry eat insects, worms, larvæ, and the like, but the Pea Fowl is a determined enemy to snakes and lizards. Not only does the bird destroy, but he devours those reptiles.

The colours of the Peacock need not be described. Its voice, however, is little in accordance with its gorgeous dress, being a shrill discordant scream.

The JAVANESE PEA FOWL, (Pavo Javanicus, HORSF.) a totally distinct species, has but recently been made known to science. Aldrovandus had access only to two drawings, sent to the Pope by the Emperor of Japan, but for more than two centuries afterwards nothing additional was learned respecting it. About the commencement of the present century, Dr. Shaw gave, in his Zoological Miscellany, a figure taken from an Indian drawing sent home by a friend; and in the year 1813, M. Temminck, in the second volume of his "Histoire Naturelle des Gallinaçes," published a sketch of the head, with a description, taken by Le Vaillant, from a living individual seen by him at the Cape of Good Hope, whither it had been sent from Macao. It was subsequently observed by Dr. Horsfield in Java, as well as by Sir Stamford Raffles in Sumatra."

In beauty the present species falls little, if at all, short of its congener; from which it may be easily distinguished by the following particulars. The crest is long, the feathers of which it is composed being equally barbed from the base upwards, and of equal breadth throughout; the colour of the crest and of the head is rich golden green. The feathers of the neck and chest, instead of being silky, are broad, short, rounded, and imbricated like the scales of a fish; at their base they have the same intense green metallic hue as the crest, but have a lighter margin.