Abstract
WITH reference to Lord Rayleigh's observations on the colour of the peacock's ‘eye’ in NATURE of May 26, it may be of interest to note the remarkable change in the colour of the filamentous groundwork of the train effected by wet—a peacock living in the open appears in rainy weather to have this part of the train copper-red instead of green, though the ‘eyes’ remain of the usual colour. This observation applies only to the ordinary peacock; the black-winged mutant has a coppery train when dry, while the very distinct Burmese peacock and its hybrid with the common bird generally show much pinkishred in the train; both of these, by the way, show a large amount of black in the wing. What the trains of peacocks of these three kinds look like when wet I do not know, having observed them chiefly in the Zoological Gardens, where they are kept in aviaries with shelter always available, and so do not get wet.
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FINN, F. The Colour of the Peacock's ‘Eye.’. Nature 122, 58 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122058d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122058d0
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