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The King of The Birds: When I Was Five, I Had An Experience That
The King of The Birds: When I Was Five, I Had An Experience That
The King of The Birds: When I Was Five, I Had An Experience That
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FLANNERY O'CON The King of the Birds
NOR
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR The King ot the Birds
the cock, more subtle and refined; but these moments buff-eolored and sleek, from what might be a blue-
of boldness pass.
blaek waisteoat. One would not be disturbed to find a
The eoek's plumage requires two years to attain its wateh cha in hanging from this, but none does. Ana-
pattern, and for the rest of his life this ehicken will lyzing the appearanee of the peaeock as he stands
aet as though he designed it himself. For his first two with his tail folded, I find the parts ineommensurate
years he might have been put together out of a rag with the whole. The faet is that with his tail folded,
bag by an unimaginative hand. During his first year nothing but his bearing saves this bird from being a
he has a buff breast, a speekled baek, a green neek laughingstock. With his taił spread, he inspires a
like his mother's, and a short gray tai!. During his range of emotions, but I have yet to hear laughter.
seeond year he has a black breast, his sire's blue neck, The usual reaetion is silence, at least for a time.
a baek which is slowly turning the green and gold it The cock opens his tail by shaking himself violently
will remain; but still no long tail. In his third year he until it is gradually lifted in an areh around him.
reaehes his majority and aequires his tail. For the Then, before anyone has had a chanee to see it, he
rest of his life-and a peachieken may live to be swings around so that his baek faces the spectator.
thirty-five-he will have nothing better to do than This has been taken by some to be insult and by
manicure it, furl and unfurl it, dance forward and others to be whimsey. I suggest it means only that the
hackward with it spread, scream when it is stepped peaeoek is equally well satisfied with either view of
upon, and areh it earefully when he steps through a himself. Sinee I have been keeping peafowl, I have
puddle.
been visited at least once a year by first-grade sehool-
Not every part of the peacoek is striking to look at, ehildren, who learn by living. I am used to hearing
even when he is fulI-grown. His upper wing feathers this group ehorus as the peacoek swings around,
are a striated black and white and might have been "Oh, look at his underwear!" This "underwear" is a
borrowed from a Barred Rock fryer; his end wing stiff gray taił, raised to support the larger one, and
feathers are the color of clay; his legs are long, thin, beneath it a puff of blaek feathers that would be suit-
and iron-eolored; his feet are big; and he appears to able for some really regal woman-a Cleopatra or a
be wearing the short pants now so much in favor with Clytemnestra-to use to powder her nose.
playboys in the summer. These extend downward, When the peaeoek has presented his baek, the
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR
The King of the Birds
spectatar wilI usually begin to walk around him to
lineman out one day to repair aur telephone. After the
get a front view; but the peacock will continue to turn
job was finished, the man, a large fellow with a suspi-
sa that no front view is possible. The thing to do then
cious expression half hidden by a yellow helmet, eon-
is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn.
tinued to idle about, trying to coax a cock that had
When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then
been watching him to struto He wished to add this
you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a gal-
experience to a large number of others he had appar-
axy of gazing, haloed suns. This is the moment when
ent1y had. "Come on naw, bud," he said, "get the
most people are silent.
show on the road, upsy-daisy, come on naw, snap it
"Amen! Amen!" an old Negro woman once cried
up, snap it up."
when this happened, and I have heard many similar
The peacock, of course, paid no attention to this.
remarks at this moment that show the inadequacy of
"What ails him?" the man asked.
human speech. Same people whist1e; a few, for once,
"N othing ails him," I said. "He'll put it up ter-
are silent. A truck driver who was driving up with a
reckly. All you have to do is wait."
load of hay and found a peacock turning before him in
The man trailed about after the cock for another
the middle of the road shouted, "Get a load of that bas-
fifteen minutes ar sa; then, in disgust, he got back in
tard!" and braked his truck to a shattering halt, I
his truck and starte d off. The bird shook himself and
have never known a strutting peacock to budge a
his taił rose around him.
fraction of an inch for truck ar tractor or automobile.
"He's doing it!" I screamed. "Hey, wait! He's do-
It is up to the vehic1e to get out of the way. No pea-
ing it!"
fowl of mine has ever been run over, though one year
The man swerved the truck back around again just
one of them lost a foot in the mowing machine.
as the cock turned and face d him with the spread taił.
The display was perfect. The bird turned slightly to
Many people, I have found, are congenitally un- the right and the little planets above him hung in
able to appreciate the sight of a peacock. Once ar
bronze, then he turned slightly to the left and they
twice I have been asked what the peacock is "good
were hung in green. I went up to the truck to see how
for"-a question which gets no answer from me be-
the man was affected by the sight.
cause it deserves none. The telephone company sent a
He was staring at the peacock with rigid eoncen-
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR
The King of the Birds
tration, as if he were trying to read fine print at a dis.
tance. In a second the cock lowered his tail and folded train glittering behind him in the sunlight.
stalked off. "Whut is thet thang?" one of the small boys asked
"Well, what did you think of that?" I asked. finally in a sullen voice.
"Never saw such long ugly legs," the man said. "I The old man had got out of the car and was gazing
bet that rascal could outrun a bus." at the peacock with an astounded look of recognition.
Some people are genuinely affected by the sight of "I ain't seen one of them since my grandaddy's day,"
a peacock, even with his tailIowered, but do not care he said, respectfully removing his hat. "Folks used to
to admit it; others appeal' to be incensed by it. Per. have 'em, but they don't no more."
haps they have the suspicion that the bird has formed "Whut is it?" the child asked again in the same
some unfavorable opinion of them. The peacock him- tone he had used before.
self is a careful and dignified investigator. Visitors to "Churren," the old man said, "that's the king of the
our place, instead of being barked at by dogs rushing birds!"
from under the perch, are squalled at by peacocks The children received this information in silence.
whose blue necks and crested heads pop up from be. After a minute they climbed back into the car and
hind tuf ts of grass, peer out of bushes, and crane continued from there to stare at the peacock, their ex-
downward from the roof of the house, where the bird pressions annoyed, as if they disliked catching the
has Rown, perhaps for the view. One of mine stepped old man in the truth.
from under the shrubbery one day and came forward
to inspect a carfuI of peopIe who had driven up to buy The peacock does most of his serious strutting in
a calf. An old man and five Ol'six white.haired, bare. the spring and summer when he has a full taił to do it
footed children were piling out the back of the auto. with. Usually he begins shortly after breakfast, struts
mobile as the bird approached. Catching sight of him for several hours, desists in the heat of the day, and
they stopped in their tracks and stared, pIainIy begins again in the late afternoon. Each cock has a
hacked to find this superior figure blocking their favorite station where he performs every day in the
path. There was silence as the bird regarded them, hope of attracting some passing hen; but if I have
his head drawn back at its most majestic angle, his found anyone indifferent to the peacock's display , be-
sides the telephone lineman, it is the peahen. She sel-
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR
T he King ot the Birds
dom easts an eye at it. The cock, his tail raised in a
through his feet some shoek from the eenter of the
shimmering arch around hirn, will turn this way and
earth, whieh travels upward through him and is re-
that, and with his c1ay-eolored wing feathers touch-
leased: Eee-ooo-ii! Eee-ooo-ii! To the melaneholy this
ing the ground, will danee forward and baekward, his
sound is melaneholy and to the hysterieal it is hysteri-
neek eurved, his beak parted, his eyes glittering.
eal. To me it has always sounded like a eheer for an
Meanwhile the hen goes about hel' business, dili-
invisible parade.
gently searehing the ground as if any bug in the
The hen is not given to these outbursts. She makes
grass were of more importanee than the unfurled map
a noise like a mu1e's bray-heehaw, heehaw, aa-aaui-
of the universe which floats nearby.
ww-and makes it on1ywhen neeessary. In the falI and
Some people have the notion that only the peaeoek
winter, peafowl are usually si1ent un1ess some raeket
spreads his tai! and that he does it onły when the hen
disturbs them; but in the spring and summer, at short
is present. This is not so. A peafowl only a few hours
interva1s during the day and night, the eoek, lewering
hatehed will raise what taił he has-it will be about
his neek and throwing baek his head, will give out
the size of a thumbnail-and will strut and turn and
with seven or eight sereams in sueeession as if this
baek and bow exaetly as if he were three years old
message were the one on earth whieh needed most ur-
and had some reason to be doing it. The hens will
'gently to be heard.
raise their tails when they see an objeet on the ground
At night these ealIs take on a minor key and the air
whieh alarms them, 01' sometimes when they have
for miles around is eharged with them. It has been a
nothing better to do and the air is brisk. Brisk air
long time sinee I let my first peafow1 out at dusk to
goes at once to the peafowl's head and inc1ines him to
roost in the eedar trees behind the house. N ow fifteen
be sportive. A group of birds will danee together, 01'
or twenty still roost there; but the original old eoek
four Ol'five will ehase one another around a bush 01'
from Eustis, Florida, stations himse1f on top of the
tree. Sometimes one will ehase himself, end his frenzy
barn, the bird who lost his foot in the mowing ma-
with a spirited leap into the air, and then stalk off as
chine sits on a fiat shed near the horse stall, there are
if he had never been involved in the speetac1e.
others in the trees by the pond, severa1 in the oaks at
Frequently the cock eombines the lifting of his tai!
the side of the house, and one that eannot be dis-
with the raising of his voiee. He appears to receive
suaded from roosting on the water tower. From all
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR T he King of the Birds
these stations calIs and answers echo through the
chicken's dusting hole is out of place in a flower bed,
night. The peacock perhaps has violent dreams. Often but the peafowI's hole, being the size of a smali
he wakes and screams "Help! Help!" and then from crater, is more so. When he dusts he all but obliter-
the pond and the barn and the trees around the house ates the sight of himself with sand. Usually when
a chorus of adjuration begins:
someone arrives at fulI gaIlop with the leveled broom,
Lee-yon lee-yon, he can see nothing through the cloud of dirt and fly-
M ee-yon mee-yon! ing flowers but a few green feathers and a beady,
Eee-e-yoy eee-e-yoy! pleasure-taking eye.
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR The King af the Birds
figs himself. "Get that scoundreI out of that fig stretched forward, she parades around the premises,
bush!" he wilI roar, rising from his chair at the sound announcing what she is about. Ilisten with mixed
of a limb breaking, and someone wilI have to be dis- emotions.
patched with a broom to the fig trees. In twenty-eight days the hen comes off with five or
PeafowI also enjoy fłying into barn lofts and eat- six mothlike, murmuring peachicks. The cock ig-
ing peanuts off peanut hay; this has not endeared nores these unless one gets under his feet (then he
them to our dairyman. And as they have a taste for pecks it over the head until it gets elsewhere) , but th
fresh garden vegetabIes, they have often run afouI of hen is a watchful mother and every year a good many
the dairyman's wife.
of the young survive. Those that withstand illnesses
The peacock Iikes to sit on gates or fence posts and and predators (the hawk, the fox, and the opossum )
aUow his taiI to hang down. A peacock on a fence over the winter seem impossible to destroy, except by
post is a superb sight. Six or seven peacocks on a gate violence.
are beyond description; but it is not very good for the A man selling fence posts tarried at our place one
gate. Our fence posts tend to Iean in one direction or day and told me that he had once had eighty peafowl
another and all our gates open diagonally. on his farm. He cast a nervous eye at two of min e
In short, I am the only person on the place who is standing nearby. "In the spring, we couldn't he ar
willing to underwrite, with something more than tol- ourselves think," he said. "As soon as you lifted your
erance, the presence of peafowl. In return, I am voice, they lifted their'n, if not before. AlI our fence
blessed with their rapid multipIication. The popula- posts wobbled. In the summer they ate all the toma-
tion figure I give out is forty, but for some time now I toes off the vines. Scuppernongs went the same way.
have not feIt it wise to take a census. I had been told M y wife said she raised her flowers for herself and
before I bought my birds that peafowI are difficuIt to she was not going to have them eat up by a chicken no
raise. It is not so, alas. In May the peahen finds a nest matter how long his tail was. And in the falI they
in some fence corner and Iays five or six Iarge buff- shed them feathers aU over the place anyway and it
colored eggs. Once a day, thereafter, she gives an was a job to elean up. My old grandmother was liv-
abrupt hee-haa-awww! and shoots like a rocket from ing with us then and she was eighty-five. She said,
heJ" nest. Then for half an hour, her neck ruffied and 'Either they go, or I go.' "
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR
The King of the Birds
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