Aesop's Fables (Joseph Jacobs)
Jacobs 21. The Jay and the Peacock (Perry
472)
A Jay venturing into a yard where Peacocks used to walk, found there
a number of feathers which had fallen from the Peacocks when they were
moulting. He tied them all to his tail and strutted down towards the Peacocks.
When he came near them they soon discovered the cheat, and striding up
to him pecked at him and plucked away his borrowed plumes. So the Jay
could do no better than go back to the other Jays, who had watched his
behaviour from a distance; but they were equally annoyed with him, and
told him:
"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."
The
Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by
Richard Heighway (1894). The page images come from Google
Books. The digitized text comes from Project
Gutenberg. You can purchase this inexpensive Dover edition, The
Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs from amazon.com.
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