[32 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part II. 



they are sometimes called peacock-pheasants. I am also 

 informed by Mr. Bartlett that they resemble the peacock 

 in their Toice and in some of their habits. During the 

 spring the males, as previously described, strut about be- 

 fore the comparatively plain-colored females, expanding 

 and erecting their tail and wing feathers, which are orna- 

 mented with numerous ocelli. I request the reader to 

 turn back to the drawing (Fig. 51, p. 86) of a Polyplec- 

 tron. In P. JVapoleonis the ocelli are confined to the tail, 

 and the back is of a rich metallic blue, in which respects 

 this species approaches the Java peacock. P. HardwicMi 

 possesses a peculiar top-knot, somewhat like that of this 

 same kind of peacock. The ocelli on the wings and- tail 

 of the seyeral species of Polyplectron are either circular 

 or oval, and consist of a beautiful, iridescent, greenish- 

 blue or greenish-purple disk, with a black border. This 

 border in P. cMnquis shades into brown which is edged 

 with cream-color, so that the ocellus is here surrounded 

 with differently, though not brightly, shaded concentric 

 zones. The unusual length of the tail-coverts is another 

 highly-remarkable character in Polyplectron ; for in some 

 of the species they are half as long, and in others two- 

 thirds of the length of the true tail-feathers. The tail-cov- 

 erts are ocellated, as in the peacock. Thus the several 

 species of Polyplectron manifestly make a graduated ap- 

 proach in the length of their tail-coverts, in the zoning of 

 the ocelli, and in some other characters, to the peacock. 



Notwithstanding this approach, the first species o£ 

 Polyplectron which I happened to examine almost made 

 me give up the search ; for I found not only that the true 

 tail-feathers, which in the peacock are quite plain, were 

 ornamented with ocelli, but that the ocelli on all the 

 feathers differed fundamentally from those of the peacock, 

 in there being two on the same feather (Fig. 54), one on 

 each side of the shaft. . Hence I concluded that the early 



