A collection of various mounts

Aves Galliformes Phasianidae
Pavo Christatus
Description
India Blue Peacock Pavo Christatus
Taxidermy mount
11’ X 7.5’ X 2.5’

Sorry kids, this one is sold. Want to commission one? Please let me know! India blues casualty specimens are pretty easy to get a hold of.

Statement
This particular bird is the unmeddled with version of Pavo Christatus, the others being mutations and manipulations of one sort or another. This regal bird has enjoyed popular attention in a domesticated sense for the last 4000 years. It
has been the root of many myths, the manifestations of various deities, and a never ending font of jokes for many political satirists.

The posing of this peacock is intended to be “anatomical” in the sense that a peacock will not display in this fashion, the train would cover both wings allowing the wings to stabilize and shake the feathers both for provocative reasons as well as an aid in the sequencing effect on the train feathers. In fact it is quite unlikely that a peacock would be able to support the train with one wing extended in this way. I felt it more important to be able to show all parts of this bird as was standard in illustrations and mounts meant for this purpose during the Victorian Age.

Process

This peacock died of a virus commonly found in aviaries. The mounting process on this was fairly standard up to the train (commonly known as tail, but it is actually composed of elongated covert feathers.) The train required a lot of additional work. Each feather had to be removed from the skin and cleaned separately. Additional replacement feathers were procured from an Anglican retreat in San Francisco. Creating a train is not a simple matter of sticking in feathers willy nilly. Each feather has a specific stalk curvature that must be carefully considered and arranged in the correct order. The orientations of the oculi are not uniform, in fact they radiate slowly across the entirety of the bird. The geometric pattern is not like stacking bricks, it is actually regulated by spacing between layers. This is similar to the patterns found in the seeds of sunflowers. This allows the design to be spiracle at every stage of the unfurling of the train.

The hurl (long filaments below the oculi) produce a zipping effect anchoring each feather to its neighbor as well as promote rank and file with those above and below the row. Of course doing this manually without the ability to control the now absent muscle fibers is a laborious chore that can never reach the same exactitude as that which is found in a live display. In order to approximate this, the first three longest rows were sown to each other so that they would share the force of gravity collectively rather than individually. After these rows are secured the following four rows were anchored by thread into the first three. At this point the feathers become much less apt to sway as the zipping effect keeps all individual feathers in line without need for artificial means. Rogue feathers were then tied to more solid soldiers. The feathers joining the prime train to the back shell feathers were adhered directly to each other and not to the full train. When separated the train consists of 8 rows which is a bit more than a normal peacock would naturally have, though it has been observed in nature. The piece emphasizes ideal conditions rather than “reality,” we get enough of that in the zoo.

The train can be separated from the rest of the mount and is kept in place with several spiked rods that connect to the main body of the bird.