PAVONIN.E, or pea-fowl, a sub-family of the Pliasianidm, includes— Pave cristatus, L. P. bicaloaratum, L.
P. Japonensis,. Bennett. P. Napoleonis, Massena.
P. muticus, Linn. P. chalcurus, Temm.
Near these are— Argusanus giganteus, Polyplectron Tibetanum, Temm. • Tema.
Pavo cristatus, Linn., Peafowl.
Taon, Taos, . ARAB., GR. Pavon, Pavone, . Ir., SP. 31ab-ja BHOT. Mong-yung, . . . LEP.
l'aon, FR. Pavon, Pfau, GER. Myloo, Mail, . . . Tan.
Mor, . . Hrin. Nimili, TEL The head is surmounted by an aigrette of 24 upright feathers. In the male the tail-coverts consist of feathers with loose barbs and of unequal ize, the upper one shortest, each terminated by numerous eyes or circlets of a metallic iridescent rillianey ; these the bird has the power of erect lig into a circle or wheel, which presents, when 'the sun shines on it, an object of dazzling splendour. The female has the aigrette, but has not the plendid ornament with which the male is gifted ; er colours generally are sombre. This species is spread over India ; it is readily domesticated, and many Hindu temples have considerable flocks of them. The bird, as domesticated in Europe, is identical with the wild bird of India. Colonel in his account of peacock-shooting, states that he had seen about the passes in the Jungleterai district surprising quantities of wild pea-fowls. Whole woods were covered with their beautiful plumage, to which the rising sun im parted additional brilliancy. He says there could
not be less than twelve or fifteen hundred pea fowls, of various sizes, within sight of the spot where he stood for near an hour.
I'avo Japonensis, P. Javanicus, Hors field. Prevailing tints, blue and green, vary ing intensity, and mutually changing into each other, according as the light falls more or less directly upon them. In size and proportions the two species are nearly similar, but the crest of P. Javanicus is twice as long as that of P. cristatus, and the feathers of which it is composed are regularly barbed from the base upwards in the adult bird, and of equal breadth throughout. plead and crest interchangeably blue and green.
The Javan pea-fowl is a splendid bird. It replaces the common pea-fowl in the Malay Peninsula and Java, and is readily distinguished by its different colouring and peculiar crest.
Pavo muticus, Linn., P. Assamicus, 31' Clelland , is found in all the countries from Assam through Burma to Malacca, and the Wands. It has spurs ; its crest is composed of about ten or more slender barbed feathers. It. has more green and gold and leis blue in its plumage than P. cristatits.
The black-shouldered pea-fowl, Palm nigripennis, is commonly called the Japan peacock, but is not found in Japan. It occurs wild in Cochin-China. —Eng. Cyc.; Jerdon, Birds of India. See Peacock.