402 The Bird 
peacock, which has ten pairs, while the peahen has one 
pair less. 
The fusing together of these bones has resulted in the 
drawing together of the feathers, so that, instead of the 
long, unwieldy, paired affair, they are arranged in fan 
shape, although still in pairs, and usually showing a slight 
graduation reminiscent of the old-style tail. Some birds 
have as few as four pairs of tail-feathers, while others 
Fia. 316.—Tail-bones of Ostrich. 
have as many as twelve. In the abnormal domestic breed 
of pigeons known as fantails, as many as forty tail-feathers 
are sometimes found. The cassowary and the emeu 
have none at all, while the ostrich seems to have an in- 
definite number; the tails of these two unrelated groups 
of birds seeming, like their wing-feathers, to have lost 
uniformity from little use. Besides these true tail-feathers 
there are others, usually smaller, which grow from above 
apd below the tail, being known as upper and under tail- 
