OF SELBORNE. 115 
and likely means of destroying them, would be al- 
lowed by the public to be a most useful and impor. 
tant work. What knowledge there is of this sort 
lies scattered, and wants to be collected ; great im. 
provements would soon follow, of course. A knowl. 
edge of the properties, economy, and, in short, of 
the life and conversation of these animals, is a ne- 
cessary step to lead us to some method of prevent. 
ing their depredations. 
As far as I am a judge, nothing would recom. 
mend entomology more than some neat plates, that 
should well express the generic distinctions of in- 
sects according to Linnzus ; for I am well assured 
that many people would study insects, could they 
set out with a more adequate notion of those dis. 
tinctions than can be conveyed at first by words 
alone. 
LETTER XXXV. 
Selborne, 1771. 
Dear Sir,—Haprenine to make a visit to my 
neighbour’s Peacocks, I could not help observing 
that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by 
no means to be their tails, those long feathers grow- 
ing not from their uropygium, but all up their backs, 
A range of short, brown, stiff feathers, about six 
inches long, fixed in the wropygium, is the real tail, 
and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train, which 
is long and top-heavy when set on end. When the 
train is up, nothing appears of the bird before but 
its head and neck; but this would not be the case 
