The Memoirs of Bābur 932.9.4

932.9.4

Its body may be as large as the crane's (_tūrna_) but it is not so tall. On the head of both cock and hen are 20 to 30 feathers rising some 2 or 3 inches high. The hen has neither colour nor beauty. The head of the cock has an iridescent collar (_ṯauq sūsanī_); its neck is of a beautiful blue; [Sidenote: Fol. 277b.] below the neck, its back is painted in yellow, parrot-green, blue and violet colours. The flowers[1765] on its back are much the smaller; below the back as far as the tail-tips are [larger] flowers painted in the same colours. The tail of some peacocks grows to the length of a man's extended arms.[1766] It has a small tail under its flowered feathers, like the tail of other birds; this ordinary tail and its primaries[1767] are red. It is in Bajaur and Sawād and below them; it is not in Kunur [Kūnūr] and the Lamghānāt or any place above them. Its flight is feebler than the pheasant's (_qīrghāwal_); it cannot do more than make one or two short flights.[1768] On account of its feeble flight, it frequents the hills or jungles, which is curious, since jackals abound in the jungles it frequents. What damage might these jackals not do to birds that trail from jungle to jungle, tails as long as a man's stretch (_qūlāch_)! Hindūstānīs call the peacock _mor_. Its flesh is lawful food, according to the doctrine of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa; it is like that of the partridge and not unsavoury, but is eaten with instinctive aversion, in the way camel-flesh is. The parrot (H.