PEACOCKS. 149 



LETTER XLIV. 

 TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



HAPPENING 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 growing not from 

 their uropygium, but all up their backs. A range of 

 short, brown, stiff feathers, about six inches long, 

 fixed in the uropygium, 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, were these 

 long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen 

 by the turkey cock, when in a strutting attitude. 

 By a strong muscular vibration, these birds can make 

 the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords 

 of a sword- dancer ; they then trample very quick with 

 their feet, and run backwards towards the females. 



I should tell you that I have got an uncommon 

 calculus agogropila, taken out of the stomach of a 

 fat ox. It is perfectly round, and about the size 

 of a large Seville orange : such are, I think, usually 

 flat. 



