PEACOCK. 97 
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. To T. PENNANT, Esq. 
DEAR SIR. Selborne, 1771. 
Happening to make a visit to my neighbours peacocks, I could 
not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds ap- 
pear 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 uropygiim, is the real tail, 
and serves as a 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 v/ere 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 cego- 
gropila, 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.f 
* Another beautiful species of peafowl, the pavo muticus, from Japan, is now fast making its 
way into our ornamental poultry -3'ards, and specimens of it may occasionally be seen for sale in 
the London if^arkets. There are but these two species, which are closely allied, and very similar 
in general appearance, the Japanese bird being, hov.ever, easily distinguishable by its differently 
formed crest (the feathers composing which are graduated and reflected backwards) ;and the 
diverse colour and texture of its silky neck plumage; it is also a trifle smaller, and the green 
gloss predominates more upon the train, besides which its note is different. Peafowl are strong 
and hardy birds, and breed freely if suffered to run wild in the woods, as is the case on several 
estates in the south of England. Many have become truly wild on the European continent, and 
are understood to pass the summer in Norway and Sweden, retiring to the German forests to 
spend the winter. In many parts of India, where the common species is indigenous, it is still 
excessively numerous, and, being gregarious in its habits, is a splendid ornament to the magnifi- 
cent scenery of its wild haunts. — En. 
t In the Edinbiirgh Philosophical Journal, for April, 1836, some very curious concretions, both 
in appearance and composition much resembling peai'ls, are described as having been taksn from 
the stomach of an ox. — E». ^-p 
