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From: "Leon Stevens" <>
Subject: RE: Re Peacocks
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 16:40:15 -0400


> In the area of Poland he came from it must have been possible <

P. Thankappan Nair in The Peacock, The National Bird of India (p.14)
says that although peafowl is native to India, "elsewhere it breeds in
almost any kind of country." Loyl Stromberg in Pea Fowl Breeding and
Management explains that although its natural habitat is the rain
forest, it can endure cold winters as well as its close cousins:
chickens and pheasants. On p. 33 he includes a photo of a peacock on a
perch above a thick layer of snow. He also includes photos of 2 large
Michigan peafowl rookeries blanketed in thick layers of snow. Nair notes
(p.58) that emperor Charlemagne "served several thousands of peacocks at
a single banquet." Both Nair and Stromberg agree that peacocks were
baked not only by kings but by the lesser European nobility as well.
Several late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs survive showing
peacocks strutting about manor parks, including Polish country gardens.



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