A Jackdaw and Peacock Feathers

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A Jackdaw and Peacock Feathers

A fine bird is more than fine feathers

A Jackdaw found a number of feathers which had fallen from Peacocks when they were moulting. He tied them to his tail and strutted towards the Peacocks. When he came near them they discovered the cheat, and plucked away his borrowed plumes. The Jackdaw could do no better than go back to his companions, who had watched his behaviour from a distance; but they were equally annoyed with him for the deception.

Townsend version (The Vain Jackdaw) - Not a perfect match

Jupiter determined, it is said, to create a sovereign over the birds, and made proclamation that on a certain day they should all present themselves before him, when he would himself choose the most beautiful among them to be king. The Jackdaw, knowing his own ugliness, searched through the woods and fields, and collected the feathers which had fallen from the wings of his companions, and stuck them in all parts of his body, hoping thereby to make himself the most beautiful of all. When the appointed day arrived, and the birds had assembled before Jupiter, the Jackdaw also made his appearance in his many feathered finery. But when Jupiter proposed to make him king because of the beauty of his plumage, the birds indignantly protested, and each plucked from him his own feathers, leaving the Jackdaw nothing but a Jackdaw.

L'Estrange version

A Daw that had a mind to be sparkish, trick'd himself up with all the gay-feathers he could muster together; and upon the credit of these stoll'n, or borrowed ornaments, he valu'd himself above all the birds in the air beside. The pride of this vanity got him the envy of all his companions, who, upon a discovery of the truth of the case, fell to pluming of him by consent; and when every bird had taken his own feather; the silly daw had nothing left him to cover his nakedness.

Moral

We steal from one another all manner of ways, and to all manner of purposes; wit, as well as feathers; but where pride and beggery meet, people are sure to be made ridiculous in the conclusion.

[Daw = Jackdaw; a European crow]

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