94 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



course. A knowledge of the properties, oeconomy, pro- 

 pagation, and in short of the life and conversation of 

 these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some 

 method of preventing their depredations. 



As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend 

 entomology more than some neat plates that should well 

 express the generic distinctions of insects according to 

 Linnaeus ; for I am well 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 



Selborne, 1771. 

 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 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 

 segogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox ; it is 



