Chap. XIII. DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 87 



insists that the beautiful plumage of the male serves 

 " to fascinate and attract the female." Mr. Bartlett, at 

 the Zoological Gardens, expressed himself to me in the 

 strongest terms to the same effect. 



It must be a grand sight in the forests of India *'to 

 " come suddenly on twenty or thirty pea-fowl, the males 

 " displaying their gorgeous trains, and strutting about 

 " in all the pomp of pride before the gratified females." 

 The wild turkey-cock erects his glittering plumage, 

 expands his finely-zoned tail and barred wing-feathers, 

 and altogether, with his gorged crimson and blue wat- 

 tles, makes a superb, though, to our eyes, grotesque 

 appearance. Similar facts have already been given 

 with respect to grouse of various kinds. Turning to 

 another Order. The male Bupicola crocea (fig. 50) is 

 one of the most beautiful birds in the world, being of 

 a splendid orange, with some of the feathers curiously 

 truncated and plumose. The female is brownish- 

 green, shaded wdth red, and has a much smaller 

 crest. Sir K. Schomburgk has described their court- 

 ship ; he found one of their meeting-places where ten 

 males and two females were present. The space was 

 from four to five feet in diameter, and appeared to have 

 been cleared of every blade of grass and smoothed as 

 if by human hands. A male " was capering to the 

 " apparent delight of several others. Now spreading 

 " its wings, throwing up its head, or opening its tail 

 " like a fan ; now strutting about with a ho]3ping gait 

 " until tired, when it gabbled some kind of note, and 

 *' was relieved by another. ^Thus three of them suc- 

 *•' cessively took the field, and then, with self-appro- 

 " bation, withdrew to rest." The Indians, in order to 

 obtain their skins, wait at one of the meeting-places 

 till the birds are eagerly engaged in dancing, and then 

 are able to kill, with their poisoned arrows, four or five 



