Peacocks are mentioned, in the Sacred Writings, as constituting part of the cargoes of the fleet which conveyed the various treasures of the East to the court of King Solomon. They were so much esteemed for the table, by the Romans, that one person, who had devised a mode of fattening them, obtained thereby alone an annual income equal to about 500l. of our money. In England these birds were formerly introduced at sumptuous dinners, and sometimes the skin and all the feathers, particularly those of the tail, were kept to serve them up in. The flesh of the old birds is coarse and unfit for food; but young pea-fowls are at this day much esteemed by epicures. The _train feathers_ of the peacock are used among the Chinese for ornamental work of different kinds, and particularly for decorating the caps of the mandarins; and they are an article of traffic from the East Indies to that country. Peacocks' _crests_, in ancient times, were among the ornaments of the kings of England; and it appears from records that, in fines to the crown, these crests were sometimes among the articles to be paid. Pea-fowls are fed in the same manner as turkeys (157); and the females, when allowed to range at liberty, always deposit their eggs in some sequestered place. These birds are very injurious in gardens, from their scratching up the ground in search of food. They love to perch on the highest trees; and their voice is a harsh scream in two notes, one of which is an octave of the other. 159. _The COMMON PHEASANT_ (Phasianus colchicus, Fig. 34) _is distinguished by the general reddish chesnut colour of its plumage, its head and neck being blue, and each eye being surrounded with a red, naked, and warty skin._ _There is a small and moveable tuft of feathers on each side of the head. The plumage of the female is much less brilliant and beautiful than that of the male._ _These birds, though now found wild in our woods, are supposed to have been originally brought into Europe from the banks of the Phasis, a river of Colchis, in Asia, situated to the East of the Black Sea. Pheasants are also found in other parts of Asia, and in Africa._