LETTER XLIV 



To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



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 iiropygiiun, but all up their backs. A range of 

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

 in the iiropygiuin, is the real tail, and serves as the ful- 

 crum to prop the train, which is long and top-heavy 

 when set on end. When the train is up, nothing ap- 

 pears of the bird before but its head and neck ; but 

 this w^ould not be the case were those long feathers 

 fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the turkey- 

 cock w^hen in a strutting attitude. By a strong mus- 

 cular 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 backw^ards tow^ards the females. 



I should tell you that I have got an uncommon 

 Calculus (Egogropila, 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. 



Selborne, 1 771. 



165 



