The Peacock's Cry
Peacocks are not to be seen every day. The sight of one magnificent specimen perched on a wall with its tail draped in a graceful pose is enough to make the hurrying traveller pull up, but when four or five birds appear a traffic-jam begins. Everyone stops to admire the display that can be seen almost any sunny morning or afternoon on the road along the valley. Peahens are drab things compared with their mates, and visitors look at them only to appreciate the grandeur of the male. These, birds are so tame that they fly down from the wall, which is nine..or ten feet high, and strut about among the cars pecking at titbits offered by children and adults. The bus-drivers know- them well, and sometimes a weary conductor gets down and shepherds the birds out of the way so that time-tables and schedules are not upset. One lady, hearing the cry of the peacock for the first time, gasped and remarked on its harshness, but, with such plumage and such unashamed vanity, the peacock deserves his shriek, more thoroughly than the less vain guinea-fowl.
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