PEACOCK. 



assured that many people would study insects, could they set 

 out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can 

 be conveyed at first by words alone. 



LETTER XXXV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne, 1771. 



HAPPENING to make a visit to my neighbours peacocks, I could 

 not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds ap- 

 pear 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 a 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 Peacock. 



not be the case were those 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 cego- 

 gropila, 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.f 



* Another beautiful species of peafowl, the pavo mut 



way into our ornamental poultr 

 the London markets. Thei 

 in general appearance, the Jap 

 formed crest (the feathers cor 

 diverse colour and texture of it 



glos 



inates more upon 

 ml hardy birds, and breed fr 



'-yards, and specimens 

 but these two species 



it's, from Japan, is now fast making its 

 f it may occasionally be s 



ng, ho w 



are grad 

 ilky neck plumage ; i 

 he train, besides which 



e bird bei 

 ing whic 



i for sale 



which are closely allied, and very similar 

 , easily distinguishable by its differently 

 .ted and reflected backwards) :and the 

 is also a trifle smaller, and the green 

 ts note is different. Peafowl are strong 



ly if suffered to run wild in the woods, as is the case on several 

 estates in the south of England. Many have become truly wild on the European continent, and 

 are understood to pass the summer in Norway and Sweden, retiring to the German forests to 

 spend the winter. In many parts of India, where the common species is indigenous, it is still 

 excessively numerous, and, being gregarious in its habits, is a splendid ornament to the magnifi- 

 cent scenery of its wild haunts. En. 



t In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, for April, 1836, some very curious concretions, both 

 in appearance and composition much resembling pearls, are described as having been taken from 

 the stomach of an ox. ED. 



H 



