Peacock

Peacock, Reginald: see Pecock, Reginald.

Peacock, Thomas Love, 1785-1866, English novelist and poet. He was employed by the East India Company from 1819 to 1856, serving as its chief examiner the final 20 years. Peacock's novels, comic and delightfully satirical, parody the intellectual modes and pretenses of his age. Nightmare Abbey (1818), his best-known work, satirizes the English romantic movement and contains characters based on Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley. Other novels include Headlong Hall (1816), Melincourt (1817), Maid Marian (1822), Crotchet Castle (1831), and Gryll Grange (1860). Peacock's best poems—lyrics and drinking songs—are interspersed in his novels. He was one of Shelley's most intimate friends, and after the famous poet's death Peacock was his literary executor.

peacock or peafowl, large bird of the genus Pavo, in the pheasant family, native to E Asia. There are two main species, the common (Pavo cristatus), and the Javanese (P. musticus) peacocks, both found in deep forest where they travel in small flocks. A third type, the Congo peacock, was discovered recently in Africa. Unusual peacocks are the Argus pheasant, with eyelike spots on its secondary flight feathers, and the white peacock, thought to be a mutation of the common peafowl. When the term peafowl is used, peacock then refers to the male of a species and peahen to the female. During courtship the crested male common peacock displays his elongated upper tail coverts—a magnificent green and gold erectile train adorned with blue-green "eyes"—before the duller-plumaged peahen. The peacock is well known as an ornamental bird, though it is quarrelsome and does not mix well with other domestic animals. The peacock figures in the Bible and in Greek and Roman myth, where it appears as the favorite bird of the goddess Hera, or Juno, and the bird was known to the pharaohs of Egypt and to 14th-century Europe, where it was roasted and served in its own plumage. Peafowl fly well despite their size, and roost in trees at night. Peacocks are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Galliformes, family Phasianidae.

Any of three species (family Phasianidae) of resplendent birds of open lowland forests. Blue, or Indian (Pavo cristatus), and green, or Javanese (P. muticus), peacock males are 35–50 in. (90–130 cm) long and have a 60-in. (150-cm) train of metallic green tail feathers tipped with an iridescent eyespot ringed with blue and bronze. The train is erected, fanned out, and vibrated during courtship. Females (peahens) are duller and have no train. The male forms a harem of two to five hens, which lay their eggs in a depression in the ground. The blue and green male Congo peacock (Afropavo congensis) has a short rounded tail; the reddish and brown hen has a topknot.

Learn more about peacock with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 18, 1785, Weymouth, Dorset, Eng.—died Jan. 23, 1866, Lower Halliford, Middlesex) English novelist and poet. For most of his life Peacock worked for the East India Co. He was a close friend of Percy B. Shelley, who greatly inspired his writing. His best verse is interspersed in his novels, which are dominated by the conversations of their characters and satirize the intellectual currents of the day. His best-known work, Nightmare Abbey (1818), satirizes romantic melancholy and includes characters based on Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.

Learn more about Peacock, Thomas Love with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 18, 1785, Weymouth, Dorset, Eng.—died Jan. 23, 1866, Lower Halliford, Middlesex) English novelist and poet. For most of his life Peacock worked for the East India Co. He was a close friend of Percy B. Shelley, who greatly inspired his writing. His best verse is interspersed in his novels, which are dominated by the conversations of their characters and satirize the intellectual currents of the day. His best-known work, Nightmare Abbey (1818), satirizes romantic melancholy and includes characters based on Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.

Learn more about Peacock, Thomas Love with a free trial on Britannica.com.

See Peafowl