Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/465

A P E A 443 The poach has not, it is true, been found wild in China, but it has been cultivated there from time immemorial ; it has entered into the literature and folk-lore of the people ; and it is designated by a distinct name, "to" or "tao," a word found in the writings of Confucius five centuries before Christ, and even in other writings dating from the 10th century before the Christian era. Though now cultivated in India, and almost wild in some parts of the north west, and, as we have seen, probably also in Afghanistan, it has no Sanskrit name ; it is not mentioned in the Hebrew text of the Scriptures, nor in the earliest Greek times. Xenophon makes no mention of the peach, though the Ten Thousand must have traversed the country where, according to some, the peach is native, but Theophrastus, a hundred years later, does speak of it as a Persian fruit, and De Candolle suggests that it might have been introduced into Greece by Alexander. According to his view, the seeds of the peach, cultivated for ages in China, might have been carried by the Chinese into Kashmir, Bokhara, and Persia between the period of the Sanskrit emigration and the Greece-Persian period. Once established, its cultivation would readily extend westward, or, on the other hand, by Cabul to north-western India, where its cul tivation is not ancient. While the peach has been cultivated in China for thousands of years, the almond does not grow wild in that country, and its introduction is supposed not to go back farther than the Christian era. On the whole, we should be inclined to attribute greater weight to the evidence from botanical sources than to that derived from philology, particularly since the discovery both of the wild almond and of a form like a wild peach in Afghanistan. It may, however, well be that both peach and almond are derived from some pre existing and now extinct form whose descendants have spread over the whole geographic area mentioned ; but of course this is a mere speculation, though indirect evidence in its support might be ob tained from the nectarine, of which no mention is made in ancient literature, and which, as we have seen, originates from the peach and reproduces itself by seed, thus offering the characteristics of a species in the act of developing itself. (M. T. M.) PEACOCK (the first syllable from the Latin Pavo, in Anglo-Saxon Pawe, Dutch Pauuw, German Pfau, French Paon), the bird so well known from the splendid plumage of the male, and as the proverbial personification of pride. A native of the Indian peninsula and Ceylon, in some parts of which it is very abundant, its domestication dates from times so remote that nothing can be positively stated on that score. Setting aside its importation to Pales tine by Solomon (1 Kings x. 22 ; 2 Chron. ix. 21), its assignment in classical mythology as the favourite bird of Hera or Juno testifies to the early acquaintance the (Greeks must have had with it ; but, though it is mentioned by Aristophanes and other older writers, their knowledge of it was probably very slight until after the conquests of Alexander. Throughout all succeeding time, however, it has never very freely rendered itself to domestication, and, retaining much of its wild character, can hardly be accounted an inhabitant of the poultry-yard, but rather an ornamental denizen of the pleasure-ground or shrubbery ; while, even in this condition, it is seldom kept in large numbers, for it has a bad reputation for doing mischief in gardens, it is not very prolific, and, though in earlier days highly esteemed for the table, 1 it is no longer considered the delicacy it was once thought. As in most cases of domestic animals, pied or white varieties of the ordinary Peacock, Pavo cristatus, are not (infrequently to be seen ; and, though lacking in propor tion the gorgeous resplendence for which the common bird stands unsurpassed, they are valued as curiosities. Greater interest, however, attends what is known as the "japanned" Peacock, often erroneously named the Japanese or Japan Peacock, a form which has received the name of P. nigripennis, as though it were a distinct species. In this form the cock, besides other less conspicuous differ ences, has all the upper wing-coverts of a deep lustrous blue instead of being mottled with brown and white, while the hen is of a more or less greyish- white, deeply tinged 1 Classical authors contain many allusions to its high appreciation at the most sumptuous banquets ; and mediaeval bills of fare on state occasions nearly always include it. In the days of chivalry one of the most solemn oaths was taken " on the Peacock ", which seems to have been served up garnished with its gaudy plumage. with dull yellowish-brown near the base of the neck and shoulders. It " breeds true " ; but occasionally a presum ably pure stock of birds of the usual coloration throws out one or more having the "japanned " plumage, leading to the conclusion that the latter may be due to " reversion to a primordial and otherwise extinct condition of the species", and it is to be observed that the "japanned" male has in the coloration of the parts mentioned no little resemblance to that of the second indubitably good species, the P. muticus (or P. spicifer of some writers) of Burma and Java, though the character of the latter s crest the feathers of which are barbed along their whole length instead of at the tip only and its golden -green neck and breast furnish a ready means of distinction. The late Sir R. Heron was confident that the "japanned " breed had arisen in England within his memory, 2 and Darwin (Anim. and Plants under Domestication, i. pp. 290-292) was inclined to believe it only a variety ; but its abrupt appear ance, which rests on indisputable evidence, is most suggest ive in the light that it may one day throw on the question " Japanned " or black-shouldered " Peafowls. of evolution as exhibited in the origin of " species ". It should be stated that the "japanned " bird is not known to exist anywhere as a wild race. The accompanying woodcut is copied from a plate drawn by Mr Wolf, given in Mr Elliot s Monograph of the Phasianidse. The Peafowls belong to the group Gallinse, from the normal members of which they do not materially differ in structure ; and, though by some systematists they are raised to the rank of a Family, Pavonidse, most are content to regard them as a Subfamily of PMsianidx (PHEASANT, q.v.). Akin to the genus Pavo is Poly- plcdrum, of which the males are armed with two or more spurs on each leg, and near them is generally placed the genus Argusiamis, containing the Argus-Pheasants, remarkable for their wonderfully ocellated plumage, and the extraordinary length of the secondary quills of their wings, as well as of the tail-feathers. It must always be remembered that the so-called "tail" of the Peacock is formed not by the rectrices or true tail-feathers, but by the singular development of the tail-coverts, a fact of which any one may be satisfied by looking at the bird when these magnificent plumes are erected and expanded in disk-like form as is his habit when dis playing his beauty to his mates. (A. N. ) PEACOCK, GEORGE (1791-1858), mathematician, was born at Thornton Hall, Denton, near Darlington, 9th April - This is probably not the case. The present writer has a distinct recollection of having seen a bird of this form represented in an old Dutcli picture, though when or where he cannot state.