EVOLUTION OF THE COLORS OF BIRDS, 263 



FAMILY PHASIANID^. The Pheasants, Turkeys, 



ETC. 



This is the family upon which Darwin relied more 

 than any other as a demonstration of the validity of 

 sexual selection in the origination of the ornamental 

 colors of birds. The only genus indigenous to North 

 America, however, is not so peculiarly notable as an ex- 

 example of this principle, although the rich bronzy 

 colors and elaborate appendages of the turkey are not 

 to be despised because they cannot vie with the gorgeous 

 hues of the pheasants of Asia. 



Genus Meleagris. The Turkeys. 



(7) Male colored like female but tints brighter; young 

 like adult female. 



Prevailing colors, brown (metallic), black, white. 



Colors largely sexual, but transferred to the female in 

 great measure. The black and white bars on the wing 

 feathers are probably recognition marks. The account 

 of the habits of the turkey given in Wilson's Orni- 

 thology, shows many uses for recognition marks. The 

 birds are eminently social in their habits, and from 

 their large size and savory flesh are especially subject to 

 persecution by hawks, owls, lynxes, etc. The young are 

 peculiarly subject to the persecution of the male bird 

 and recognition marks might even be of use to enable 

 the female to keep her brood out of the way of her fierce 

 mate. How well Wilson understood the significance of 

 the colors in sexual selection, and how near he came to 

 anticipating this hypothesis of Darwin is shown in his 

 account of the courtship of turkeys. He says: ^" Where 

 the turkeys are numerous, the woods from one end to 

 the other, sometimes for hundreds of miles, resound 

 with this remarkable voice of their wooing, uttered re- 



* American Ornithology. Jardine's Edition, iii, pp. 238-239. 



