The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1898-05-21
THE GEORGIA HUMORIST.
WILLIAMS PeAFoWLs CAUSE A KICK BY
HIS NEIoHBoRs.

WILLIAMS PEAFOWLS CAUSE A KICK BY
HIS NElGHBoRs.
He is Notified Anonymously---Some Inter.
esting characteristics Of the Historic and
Beautiful Bird Given at Length---Other
Interesting Talk.
ssSic utre tue ut alieum non toedas, !"
which means if your chickens get in
your nabor's garden he must sic the
dog on 'em, or words to that effect.
Yesterday / received kind letter from
some unknown friend saying that our
peafowls were annoying the neighbor-
ing gardens and il they were not put
up they would be killed. I was rumi-
mating about this anonymous letter
and my opinion is that this is not the
best way to make a complaint. Our
nabors are all good and kind to us and
I suppose it was the fear of giving
offense that kept the writer's name
from the letter, but ! really would
have felt better if the writer had told
me face to face about the peafowls. As
it is, L am afraid several Majors have
been feeling unkind and q don't know
who to apologize to. My wife has told
me several times that she feared the
peafowls were trespassing and that we
had better get rid of them. Well, we
have had four or Aye every year
for IL years and they never did
any serious harm to our own
garden = not half so much as
some Of our nabors' chickens and dogs
have done, but folks are folks about
such things and nobody likes to have
other folks bipeds or quadrupeds
prowling around. The peafowl is such
a nice, pretty, aristocratic bird that we
thought the Majors would like to see
them occasionally, and if they behaved
badly few stones and clods and sticks
and womanly "shoos" would drive
them away for good, for they are timid
and easily insulted. As for putting
them up, we can't do it, for we can't
catch them and they roost so high we
can't reach them. A colored Methodist
preacher couldn't. And so when / got
the anonymous I engaged friend to
come and shoot them in the treetops,
but they had flown away before he got
here. We then baited them into the
workshop and finally caught them and
have sent them to the country, where
Majors are not SO hear or 30 anony-
nous.
The peafowl Is historic bird.
4 GIL - -
and brought back ivory and
gold and peacocks. And the
Lord said unto Job: "Who gave
to the peacock his goodly wings" It
rs said to be the most magnificent Of
all birds; its form is elegant; It's move
ments graceful; its plumage resplen-
dent with tints of green, golden,
bronze and blue; its long bushy tail is
beautiful beyond description with its
iridescent hues, velvet centers and
brilliant eye spots. In their incom-
parable robe we find all that glistens
in the rainbow and sparkles in the
mine-the azure tints of heaven and
the emerald of the fields. Now isent
it pity to kill bird like like that
And yet the ancient Romans killed
them for their brains and tongues and
it took 1000 to furnish enough for 9
great entertainment.
The peafowl is a gallinaceous bird,
but not graminiferous. How's that.
It belongs to the polyplectron g nera
of the sub-family. of pavonine. just
think of it. The bill is moderate
, with the base of the culmen elevated,
. the APPEAL half arched and vaulted
tarsi long and strong, spurs conical,
. anterior toes united at the base and
the tarsi in the females tuberculate.
Mirable dictu! Some people don'i
J know all that. Maybe my anonymous
friend didn't know it or he would have
had more consideration for the bird
Their food is grain, seed and insects
but they are non-scratchibus. They
} can't scratch, for their legs are mo-
: built that way. They sing but one
{ song and that song has but one shor
strain of two notes that sounds like
> "paon," and that word is its French
, name. There is not much melody il
this song, especially when oft in tn,
Silly night it tries to play upon it,
grammaphone and begins and finishes
with q wild Comanche screech. Lik,
some children, they are to be seen and
and not heard.
!, But have long wondered why tn,
ma was made so much more beauti
full than the female. This peculia
distinction seems to mark the male
of all gallinaceous birds and make
I them arrogant and vain. "As vain a
q peacock" is one of the oldest pro
verbs. When one is in full array b
will sit upon the balustrade for al
hour and survey himself in the bal
|, rejecting window glass. What h
would d. before large plate miro
I do not know, but found out lon,
ago that the best way to steal you
. neighbours pigeons was to set up small
pieces of looking glass on the shelf o
. the dove cote.
, But in mankind and most all quad
3 rupeds the male is coarse, domineerin
and unadorned. In fact, most all me-
are positively ugly and unattractiye