I am not going to be so impertinent as to describe in detail the plumage of a bird so well known as the Peacock. Who does not know his empurpled neck so elegantly bridled, his aigrette of four-and-twenty battledore-feathers, his pencilled body-clothing, and, above all, his grand erectile train with its rows of eyelets? Who has not admired the lustre and beauty of those eyelets,--the kidney-like nucleus of deepest purple, the surrounding band of green, widening in front and filling the notch of the pupil, the broad circle of brown, and the narrow black ring edged with chestnut, and then the decomposed barbs of the feather, gilded green, all presenting the effulgence of burnished metal, or rather the glitter and glow of precious gems, flashing in the varying light? One can hardly imagine the splendour of the scene described by Colonel Williamson, as seen by him in the Jungleterry District in India, when, being engaged shooting these beautiful fowl, he estimates that not fewer than twelve or fifteen hundred Peafowl of various sizes were within sight of him for nearly an hour. "Whole woods were covered with their beautiful plumage, to which the rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. Small patches of plain among the long grass, most of them cultivated, and with mustard then in bloom, which induced the birds to feed, increased the beauty of the scene." In the preceding volume I have spoken of the gorgeous beauty of the Birds of Paradise, and have quoted the description given by Lesson of his rapt feelings when, on first seeing a specimen in the forests of Papua, he could not shoot from emotion. A chapter on animal beauty cannot pass over this magnificent family, though to my own taste there is something in the refulgent radiance of the Humming-birds and Pheasants which is superior to anything seen in the Paradise-birds. The latter, or some of them at least, give me the idea of being over-dressed, particularly that one called the Superb, whose singular forked gorget and shoulder-cape, gorgeous as these adornments are, with their lustrous violet and green flushes, are somewhat inelegant in form. Yet some of them are softly beautiful;-- "So richly deck'd in variegated down, Green, sable, shining yellow, shading brown, Tints softly with each other blended, Hues doubtfully begun and ended; Or intershooting, and to sight Lost and recover'd, as the rays of light Glance in the conscious plumes touch'd here and there. * * * * * "This the Sun's Bird, whom Glendoveers might own, As no unworthy partner in their flight Through seas of ether, where the ruffling sway Of nether air's rude billows is unknown: Whom sylphs, if e'er for casual pastime they Through India's spicy regions wing their way, Might bow to as their lord."[212] [Illustration: PEACOCK-SHOOTING.]