a conceited jackdaw was vain enough to imagine that he wanted nothing but the coloured plumes to make him as beautiful a bird as the peacock. puffed up with this wise conceit, he dressed himself with a quantity of their finest feathers, and in this borrowed garb, leaving his old companions, tried to pass for a peacock; but he no sooner attempted to stray with these splendid birds, than an affected strut betrayed the sham. the offended peacocks fell upon him with their beaks, and soon stripped him of his finery. having turned him again into a mere jackdaw, they drove him back to his brethren.

but they, remembering what airs he had once given himself, would not permit him to flock with them again, and treated him with well-deserved contempt.