Peahen

“ It is the peacock that spreads the studded glory of its tail—not the peahen. As among the birds and beasts, so primitive man was the resplendent sex, while his mate went about her task, in more subdued and humble tones. ”

“ Next morning he ordered her to be tied to a horse’s tail, and so torn to pieces. But the peahens never came back, so the king’s son was very sad for a long time, and wept at his loss. At length he determined to go and look after his peahen; resolving never to come back again unless he should find her. When he told the king his father of his intention, the king begged him not to go away, and told him that he would find him another beautiful girl, and that he might choose out of the whole kingdom. ”

“ At the sound of her well known voice, all sorts of poultry came tumbling over each other, in their eagerness to get their morning repast; turkeys and their chicks, guinea-fowls, and a peahen with her brood. This last was examined with great attention by Mary.
"They are not prettier than chickens; nay, I do not like them so well," said she.
"No, my dear," returned Mrs. Harrison; "it is many months before the young peachicks show any marks of their beauty; and then it is only the male that is handsome, for you see the peahen is rather an ordinary bird.
"But where are all the geese?" said William ”

“ A peahen lays fewer eggs than most birds of her size. She will lay three times a year if you succeed in "changing her current of thought" when she is broody. She usually wishes to sit on the first six eggs and as she has pretty good judgment in placing her nest and is a patient and courageous mother, you had better trust her to bring up her family, unless you wish to raise the first lot under hens or turkey mothers. ”

“ His servant, however, found an opportunity of blowing with the bellows behind his neck, and again the prince fell asleep. A moment after came the nine peahens, and the eight alighted on the lake and the ninth by him, on his horse, and sought to awaken [14] him, caressing him. “Arise, my darling! Arise, my heart! Arise, my soul!” But it was of no use, he slept on as if dead. Then the peahen said to the servant, “When your master awakens, tell him he ought to strike off the head of the nail from the lower part, and then he will find me.” ”

“ Yet young peahen is uncommonly good eating, even now, at the end of the nineteenth century, and in the craze that some people have for new birds—Argus pheasants, Reeve's pheasants, golden pheasants and what not—to stock their coverts, it is a wonder that some one has not tried a sprinkling of peacocks.
[Pg 186]
SPRING FASHIONS. ELLA GILBERT IVES.
EVEN in birddom some of the styles come from Paris, where the rouge gorge smartens up his red waistcoat as regularly as the spring comes round. Our staid American robin tries to follow suit, though he never can equal his old-world models. ”

“ Spring House at Johnson Homestead, Germantown, Pennsylvania.
A beautiful and fitting tenant of old formal gardens was the peacock, "with his aungelis federys bryghte." On large English estates peacocks were universally kept. A fine peacock, with full-spread tail, makes many a gay flower bed pale before his panoply of iridescence and color. The peahen is a demurely pretty creature. Peacocks are not altogether grateful to garden owners ”

“ She takes the greatest care to hide her nest from the searching eye of the male, which breaks the eggs whenever he finds them. Incubation lasts from twenty-seven to thirty days. The young follow their mother from their birth; at six months they are reputed adult, and attain their full development at three years. The Peahen, like the hen Pheasant and the Common Hen, adopts the plumage of the male when age has rendered her unfruitful, or when, by a premature atrophy, her eggs have become sterile. ”

“ Although so active, they are less independent than most young poultry, and follow the mother closely until she drives them from her at the approach of the next breeding season. Peahens are preferred as mothers, because their disposition is to keep their young with them much longer than a turkey or a fowl does. ”

“ To the first of these it is a perplexing departure from the scheme of Nature, where it is a rule that any marked difference between the sexes confers greater splendor upon the male. The peacock and peahen, the lion and lioness, the stag and the hind, are common examples of a principle which, among the higher animals, finds its only exception among certain falcons. ”

“ The peafowl matures more slowly and does not breed so early. The females are not fit for breeding until two years old; the males not until three years old. They do not pair, but mate in small polygamous families—one male with from two to four females. The peahen usually lays from four to six eggs—rarely more than eight or ten. The period of incubation is four weeks. Young peachicks are very bright and active. They begin to fly when only three or four days old. If they are to be kept in an inclosure while very small, the sides must be high or the top must be covered with wire netting. ”

“ Look in this box. Peacocks' eggs—white peacocks, too. Very rare. We're going to set them under that peahen in the orchard. I suppose she's there all right, Foley?"
"Yis, sorr. She was at foive o'clock [128] this marning, sorr. Oi give her four ducks' eggs to kape her continted-loike."
"All right, then. Come on, boys. We'll see how she's getting on. We'll have to set a guard around her while she hatches these out. They're too valuable to risk. Do you suppose she'd stand for it if we put up a little tent around her, Foley? Big nuisance she won't set in some convenient place." ”

“ It is usually made amongst thick grass or in dense bushes, but occasionally there is no attempt at concealment. Mr. A. Anderson states that peahens frequently lay at high elevations, that he has on several occasions taken their eggs from the roofs of huts of deserted villages on which rank vegetation grew to a height of two or three feet. My experience of captive birds bears out this. The peahens in the Lahore “Zoo” lay all their eggs on a broad shelf in their aviary, some fifteen feet above the level of the ground. Seven or eight eggs of a dirty white hue are laid. ”

“ It cannot be supposed, for instance, that male birds of paradise or peacocks should take such pains in erecting, spreading, and vibrating their beautiful plumes before the females for no purpose. We should remember the fact given on excellent authority in a former chapter, that several peahens, when debarred from an admired male, remained widows during a whole season rather than pair with another bird. ”

“ The proud peacock stood on the fence near by, and spread his tail out, that the morning sun might shine on it, and make it still more beautiful.
"Ah!" said the peacock to one of the hens, "do you not wish that you were as handsome as I am? Then you would never have to scratch for your food, but would be fed and taken care of and admired."
"I wish nothing of the kind," said the hen. "There is something which men prize more than beauty, and that is usefulness. If I were as fine and gay as you are, men would miss the eggs I lay." ”

“ I went into the royal farm adjoining the palace, and there I found one of the Emperor’s pea-hens sitting upon her nest, and hatching a clutch of eggs, which was calculated to produce a breed of the very finest peacocks. By the Emperor’s orders this nest was watched by an attendant night and day, in order that no one should interfere with the eggs, and the pea-hen herself was so cross that she would not allow anyone to approach her except the man who fed her. ”

“ They will even kill their own young in a similar way, if they see them before the tuft of feathers on the head has grown. Pea-hens are very fond of laying in bushes or hedges, like guinea fowl, and when they are kept in pleasure-grounds with peacocks they should be narrowly watched. If they are observed to steal secretly into a bush or hedge, the place should be marked and examined when the pea-hen has left it; and, if a nest is found, all the eggs should be carefully removed but one. ”

“ The pea-hen is a different creature: she keeps her nest a secret even from the peacock, never leaving it save on the wing, and approaching it with the greatest circumambulation. Nobody but the boy knows where it is. Should he take up her egg, though he might lay it down exactly as it was before, she would never lay another egg there. This he knows. He is acquainted with many things other people have no idea of. He knows how a roost of poultry looks at morning dusk, when, if you enter the barn, the entire roost turns one eye at you, and then for an unknown cause simultaneously shakes its head. ”

“ At one spot in the gardens a peacock sat sunning itself.
“What is that beautiful creature called?” she asked.
“That, dear sister, is a peacock,” answered the princes.
“A peacock!” cried Rosetta. “Never in my life did I dream that such a beautiful thing existed. I am sure that in all the world there can be nothing else that is quite so beautiful. Dear brothers, if you love me, find the King of the Peacocks and bring him here, for he, and he alone, shall be my husband. ”

“ These peacocks are the best "rain-makers" in the place; whenever they cry much, it is sure to rain; and if they persist day after day, the rain is equally continuous. From the wall by the barn, or the elm-branch above, their cry resounds like the wail of a gigantic cat, and is audible half a mile or more. In the summer, I found one of them, a peacock in the fall brilliance of his colours, on a rail in the hedge under a spreading maple bush. His rich-hued neck, the bright light and shadow, the tall green meadow grass, brought together the finest colours. ”

“ Peacocks went in and out of the houses, and drove through the streets in magnificent coaches shining with gold and precious stones. Everywhere were only peacocks spreading their tails and parading in all their magnificence. Strangely enough, however, the King who ruled over this country was not a peacock at all, but a young man so handsome and graceful that even the peacocks could not equal him in beauty.
The princes, who had not taken long in finding the castle, were brought before the King by the peacocks who attended him. ”

“ Look when one might, in the hottest sunshine or the heaviest rain, there sat the bird quite up out of the nest, head erect and eyes eagerly watching for intruders. The pewee, for all his tender and melancholy utterances, has a fiery spirit. He hesitates not to clinch with a brother pewee, interpolates his sweetest call into the hot chases, and even when resting between encounters, spreads his tail, flutters his wings, and erects his crest in a most warlike manner. The little dame was not a whit less vigilant than her spouse. ”

“ Not the half turkey-shaped creature that struts around the farmyard—though he is even more beautiful than any other bird—but the wild peacock of the Ind—of shape slender and elegant—of plumage resplendent as the most priceless of gems—and, what was then of more consequence to our adventurers, of flesh delicate and savoury as the choicest of game. ”

“ Gavest thou proud wings unto the peacocks? so some read it. Fine feathers make proud birds. The peacock is an emblem of pride; when he struts, and shows his fine feathers, Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like him. The ostrich too has goodly feathers, and yet is a foolish bird; for wisdom does not always go along with beauty and gaiety. Other birds do not envy the peacock or the ostrich their gaudy colours, nor complain for want of them; why then should we repine if we see others wear better clothes than we can afford to wear? ”

“ Whilst they were thus engaged, up came a duck, in a state of great affright, and stayed not till she reached the tree on which the two peacocks were perched, when she seemed reassured. The peacock doubted not but that she had some rare story; so he asked her of her case and the cause of her alarm, to which she replied, ‘I am sick for sorrow and my fear of the son of Adam: beware, O beware of the sons of Adam!’ ‘Fear not,’ rejoined the peacock, ‘now that thou hast won to us.’ ‘Praised be God,’ cried the duck, ‘who hath done away my trouble and my concern with your neigbourhood! ”

“ We are told by travellers that among all the gorgeously-coloured inhabitants of these luxuriant regions, the Peacock Heron is conspicuous, presenting as it does a most brilliant combination of yellow, green, black, brown, and grey, when seen by the full light of the sun, in whose rays it delights to bask, keeping meanwhile its wings and tail gracefully outspread. ”

“ It was a short-backed hen: she winked with one eye, crying, "Cluck, cluck!" What she was thinking of I can't say, but what the peasant thought on seeing her, was this: "That is the prettiest hen I have ever seen—much prettier than any of our parson's chickens. I should very much like to have her. A hen can always pick up a grain here and there—can provide for herself. I almost think it would be a good plan to take her instead of the goose. Shall we exchange?" he asked. "Exchange?" repeated the owner; "not a bad [Pg 13] idea!" So it was done; the turnpike-man got the goose, the peasant the hen. ”

“ We shall now speak of the second class of birds employed in augury, which is divided into two kinds; those which give omens by their note, and those which afford presages by their flight. The variation of the note in the one, and the relative size in the other, constitute the differences between them. The peacock shall have precedence of all the rest, as much for its singular beauty as its superior instinct, and the vanity it displays. ”

“ Then peaches, and melons;—and there are certain pears, too, that taste like heaven. One of my favourite daydreams for the long afternoon of life is to live alone, a formal, greedy, selfish old gentleman, in a square house, say in Devonshire, with a square garden, whose walls are covered with apricots and figs and peaches: and there are precious pears, too, of my own planting, on espaliers along the paths. I shall walk out with a gold-headed cane in the autumn sunshine, and just at the right moment I shall pick another pear. ”