Peacock (Pavo), a genus allied to pheasants and other game-birds, including at least two species—the Indian and Singhalese P. cristatus, domesticated in Britain and other countries, and the Malayan P. muticus, inhabiting Java, Borneo, and similar regions. The Indian peafowls live in flocks, especially in mountainous and wooded districts, and are often accompanied by the tiger; though whether the tiger derives benefit from the wariness or flesh of the birds is uncertain. The birds roost in trees, and eat omnivorously—worms, insects, small snakes, seeds, &c. At the pairing season rival males display the well-known beauty of their tail-coverts before their desired mates, and strut about after the fashion of many game-birds. They sometimes fight fiercely with their rivals, and the females sometimes pay court to the males. Polygamy prevails, but there seems no truth in the old stories about the cruelty of the males to their mates. The usual cry is a shrill Pao, and strange noises are made by rattling the quills. The females lay, according to the climatic conditions, from April to October; the eggs, of a brownish colour, are numerous (eight to ten), and are laid without a nest in some concealed part of the jungle. At first both sexes are alike in plumage, but after a year or so the males gradually acquire their gorgeous feathers, which are perfected about the third year. It is not necessary to describe these colours, so delightfully familiar to all, but it may be noted that they are for the most part of a physical nature, being due not so much to pigment as to external markings, which produce iridescence. As to the evolution of the eye-like markings, which occur in varying degrees of perfection, we have on the one hand to recognise with Darwin that the more beautifully decorated males are selected by their mates, and on the other hand that we do not know to what precise conditions of feather-growth the marvellous beauty is due. The Javan peafowl is said to be even handsomer than the familiar species. Its crest, head, and neck are rich green, the breast bluish green margined with gold, the back bright copper-colour barred with green and light brown, and the upper tail-coverts rich green with gold and copper-colour reflections. White or pied peacocks occasionally occur as sports, and yet more remarkable is the 'japanned' breed, which seems to have arisen quite abruptly.
The peacock seems to have been well known in Greece after Alexander's Indian expedition, but it was known in Judæa even in the time of Solomon. From Greece it spread to Rome and gradually westwards. In many different ways it has touched human life and fancy: it was the bird of Juno to the Greeks and Romans, and emblematic of a glori- fied body to the early Christians; its feathers have adorned many a throne and shrine, and the perverted luxury of the later Roman empire made an entrée of the tongues or brains. The eggs and the young are edible, but domesticated peacocks are now kept almost solely for their beauty's sake, and that at some cost, for they are apt to do mischief both in garden and poultry-yard.