Before closing this Chapter mention must be made of the most 
remarkable wing-display to be found among birds, and of the 
equally remarkable uses to which they are put. The possessor 
of these wonderful appendages, for they are wonderful, is the 
argus pheasant of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. Though 
efficient for short flights in jungles, all that is ever required of 
them, they would be quite useless in open country where an 
extended journey had to be made, or escape attempted from some 
vigorous enemy. And this because the secondary wing-quills— 
the quills attached to the forearm-—are of enormous length, 
making, as we have remarked, sustained flight impossible. They 
have, indeed, come dangerously near losing their normal 
functions altogether. And this because they have passed over into 
the category of specialised ‘‘ secondary sexual characters.” But 
for the fact that this bird lives in an environment where food 
is abundant all the year round, and can be obtained without 
any undue exertion, and that there are no serious enemies to 
be evaded, it would long since have become extinct. For 
this exuberant growth of quill-feathers must be borne all the 
year round, though they are not required to function in their 
later role, save during the period of courtship. 
Their great length is not their only striking feature, or even 
their chief feature. This, indeed, is represented by their 
extraordinary coloration. For each feather bears along its 
