A peacock, perhaps competing with the surrounding flora, struts in full regalia amid the roses and manicured hedges of an English garden.

A peacock’s brilliant tail feathers, or coverts, make up more than 60 percent of the bird’s total body length and are usually deployed during courtship displays.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “900 Years Ago: The Norman Conquest,” August 1966, National Geographic magazine)