Hello from the farm,
Despite Peacock Blue being a colour on just about every artist's palette, peacocks aren't actually blue. I only discovered this fairly recently and it is very surprising when you consider that Percy, one of our three peafowl, is possibly the bluest thing I've ever seen. But there isn't a speck of blue pigment responsible for that magnificent colour. It's all a trick of the light. It's called structural colouration. Microscopic structures in Percy's feathers interact with light to produce that extraordinary blue. It's also why his feathers change colour as he moves, something scientists call iridescence.
And those enormous feathers with their beautiful green and gold eyes aren't technically his tail. They're elongated feathers called upper tail coverts, supported by his actual tail underneath. He grows this entire arrangement, spends the breeding season showing it off to the peahens, then moults the lot. Every year, which is an extraordinary amount of effort for a seasonal wardrobe.
I used to collect his discarded feathers, but my Mum was terribly superstitious about them. Bringing peacock feathers into the house was apparently asking for trouble.
Naturally, I investigated and it turns out that the superstition goes back centuries. In Greek mythology, Hera placed the hundred eyes of her murdered watchman, Argus, onto the feathers of her sacred peacock. Over time, those eyes became associated with the evil eye and bad luck. I even found an account from 1895 of a Yorkshire servant warning young women that keeping peacock feathers above the mantelpiece would prevent them from ever getting married (not sure why this is a bad thing).
I wonder whether the superstition was originally invented to stop people stealing them? There's no evidence for that, although I reckon I may be on to something.
Anyway, Mum's warnings have stayed with me. I'm not particularly superstitious, but I see no reason to test several centuries of folklore simply because Percy has left his wardrobe all over the paddock. So the feathers stay outside.
