46 SEXUAL SELECTION : BIRDS. Part II. 



The peacock with his long train appears more like a 

 dandy than a warrior, but he sometimes engages in 

 fierce contests : the Rev. W. Darwin Fox informs me 

 that two peacocks became so excited whilst fiofhting at 

 some little distance from Chester that they flew over 

 the whole city, still fighting, until they alighted on the 

 top of St. John's tower. 



The spur, in those gallinaceous birds which are thus 

 provided, is generally single ; but Polyplectron (see 

 fig. 51, p. 90) has two or more on each leg ; and one of 

 the Blood-pheasants {Itliaginis cruentus) has been seen 

 with five spurs. The spurs are generally confined to the 

 male, being represented by mere knobs or rudiments in 

 the female ; but the females of the Java peacock (Pavo 

 muticus) and, as I am informed by ^Tr. Blyth, of the small 

 fire-backed pheasant {Euplocamus erytliropthalmus) pos- 

 sess spurs. In Galloperdix it is usual for the males to 

 have two spurs, and for the females to have only one 

 on each leg.^^ Hence spurs may safely be considered as 

 a masculine character, though occasionally transferred 

 in a greater or less degree to the females. Like most 

 other secondary sexual characters, the spurs are highly 

 variable both in number and development in the same 

 species. 



Various birds have spurs on their wings. But the 

 Egyptian goose (Ghe^ialojjex wgryptiacus) has only " bare 

 ^' obtuse knobs," and these probably shew us the first 

 steps by which true spurs have been developed in other 

 allied birds. In the spur-winged goose, Pledrojpterus 

 gamhensis, the males have much larger spurs than tlie 

 females ; and they use them, as I am informed by Mr. 

 Bartlett, in fighting together, so that, in this case, the 



^^ JerdoB, 'Birds of India:' on Ithaginis, vol. iii. j). 523; on Gallo- 

 perdix, p. 541. 



