Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
PEA'COCK. 1 Kgs 10:22. This singular and beautiful bird is mentioned among the articles imported by Solomon from Tharshish, the modern Ceylon or Malabar coast of India, where the peacock is indigenous. " The wings of the ostrich cannot raise it from the ground; yet in running it catches (or, as the word rendered "goodly" imports, "drinks in") the wind. The construction of the ostrich and that of the stork are thus contrasted, as are also their habits; for the stork is as proverbial for her tenderness to her young as is the ostrich for her seeming indifference. Job 39:14-16. See Ostrich, Stork.
Peacock.