OF SEL BORNE. 
Ill 
LETTER XXXV. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Selborne, 1771. 
APPEIS'IN'G to make a visit to my neigh- 
bour'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 uropy- 
gium, but all up their backs. ^ A range of short brown stifi" 
feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is 
the real tail, and serves as the fnlcrum 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 back- 
wards towards the females. 
I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus 
cegagropila, 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. 
^ The peafowl is not the only bird in which the feathers of different 
parts sometimes assume the appearance of a tail. Familiar instances 
of this peculiarity are found in some of the cranes, notably in the Stanley 
crane, and in the beautiful Trogon resplendens of Central America.— 
Ed. 
