Letter XXXV
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

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 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 backwards towards the
females.

I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus
aegogropila, 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.