NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. ?5 
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.* 
LETTEE XXXV. 
TO THE SAME. 
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 an 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 cegogropila, 
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. 
mentions that he has employed, successfully, an infusion of wormwood to water 
the drills, or the application of very dry dust ; but these could scarcely be employed 
upon a large extent of farm, although useful in a garden. Numerous other appli- 
cations are recommended, but one of the easiest, and said to be efficacious, is that 
of smoke by means of weeds, or any other material kindled, so as to be carried 
across the field by wind. There may be occasional seasons remarkable for 
drought or cold, and inimical to rapid vegetation, but these are exceptional, and 
the ordinary remedies will in all probability be unavailing. 
But there is another insect scourge to the turnip-field, which fortunately is not 
nearly of such frequent occurrence ; it is one of those insects that return at 
times without warning, the periodicity of which has not been accounted for. It 
belongs to the same family as the caterpillar which attacks gooseberry-bushes, and 
which must be so generally known, and both are the larvae of what are called 
"saw-flies." The caterpillars do the injury, and when they do appear they are 
in thousands, and soon strip the tender or leaf-part of the turnip plant, which 
is sometimes in a considerably advanced state when the ravages commence, 
generally after hoeing has been performed. The surest remedy is hand-picking 
by children. This is the Athalia centifolia^ of entomologists ; the popular name 
of the caterpillar " black dolphin. " 
* There are several works now of this kind, Curtis's "British Entomology," 
has dissections of the parts from which the generic cliaracters are taken, but this 
is expensive. Westwood's '* Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, " 
gives capital wood-cut illustrations of the parts, besides other information. This 
work is in 2 vols. 8vo. , 
