"The ſpring diſplaying her elegant taſte, the proud walk of the gold-feathered pheaſant, the light tread of the ſmall-hoofed hind, and the dancing of the ſtar-trained peacock, infuſed joy into the ſoul of the ſpectator of the aſtoniſhing works of the Creator."
— 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page v:
"When a reader recently inquired if people really eat peacock, I stated that I’d never tasted the bird, roasted or otherwise, and as far as I knew, it is rarely cooked anywhere in the world."
— 1979 April 23, Craig Claiborne, “De Gustibus”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
"Nor do many people today long to eat peacock, which was both a privilege and an ordeal reserved for royalty."
— 1990 December 20, Charles Perry, “The Birds: Fowl Play…”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2026:
"Nero, infamous emperor of Rome, built a rotating dining room in which guests could eat peacock while flower petals fluttered down from special panels in the ivory ceiling."
— 2017 September 27, Sam Anderson, “New Sentences: From ‘The New Rules of Coffee’”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2018:
"The large and handsome spectre-butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly, Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce."
— 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 199: