106 PEACOCKS. 



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 uropygium, is 

 the real tail, and serves as \hefulcrum 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. 



1 should tell you that I have got an uncommon 

 calculus tegogropila, 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. 



XXXVI. 



THE summer through I have seen but two of 

 that large species of bat which I call vespertilio 

 altivolans, from its manner of feeding high in the 

 air. I procured one of them, and found it to be 

 a male, and made no doubt, as they accompanied 

 together, that the other was a female ; but, hap- 

 pening in an evening or two to procure the other 

 likewise, I was somewhat disappointed when it 

 appeared to be also of the same sex. This cir- 

 cumstance, and the great scarcity of this sort, at 

 least in these parts, occasions some suspicions in 

 my mind whether it is really a species, or whether 



