BIRDS 113 



The peacock, Pavo cristatus, erects his beautiful tail, which 

 is of such extraordinary size, in the manner known to every 

 one. It is not the rectrices or steering feathers, but the tail 

 coverts which are so much enlarged and so beautifully ocel- 

 lated. The head crest, which consists of a row of slender 

 feathers, is present in both sexes of peafowl, and the presence 

 of a spur on each leg in the male is evidence that they fight. 

 It is very probable that the crest has been produced, like the 

 comb of the common cock, by the strokes of the beak, which 

 here being less violent have plucked at the feathers instead 

 of injuring the skin, and so causing an outgrowth from it. 

 Until the second year male and female peafowl have the 

 same plumage. In the third year the long dorsal plumes of 

 the male begin to appear, and it is then that these birds begin 

 to whirl about the tail and to court the attention of the 

 females. The peahen does not begin to lay till the third 

 year. 



The display of plumage by male pheasants, especially of 

 the Argus pheasant, has been described at length by Darwin. 

 In the Argus pheasant the principal adornment consists of 

 the secondary and primary wing feathers, each of the former 

 being ornamented with a row of delicately shaded ocelli. 

 These ornaments are confined to the male, and only visible 

 when the male displays before the female. The two central 

 tail feathers are much elongated, and all these feathers are 

 erected in courtship, the wing feathers forming a circular fan 

 and meeting in front of the head. 



The gold and Amherst pheasants have beautifully coloured 

 frills on the neck, and these are specially erected and dis- 

 played to the female in courtship. As Darwin says, they 

 likewise turn their beautiful tails and tail coverts sideways 

 to the female, and these feathers are very much longer in the 

 adult male than in the female. 



In Polyplectron both the tail feathers and the wing feathers 



