Cbap. XIII.] DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 83 



birds, whether in a state of nature or under confinement, 

 are unanimously of opinion that the males delight to dis- 

 play their beauty. Audubon frequently speaks of the 

 male as endeavoring in various ways to charm the female. 

 Mr. Gould, after describing some peculiarities in a male 

 humming-bird, says he has no doubt that it has the power 

 of displaying them to the greatest advantage before the 

 female. Dr. Jerdon " insists that the beautiful plumage 

 of the male serves " to fascinate and attract the female." 

 Mr. Bartlett, at the Zoological Gardens, expressed himself 

 to me in the strongest terms to the same eflect. 



It must be a grand sight in the forest of India " to 

 come suddenly on twenty or thirty pea-fowl, the males 

 displaying their gorgeous trains, and strutting about in 

 all the pomp of pride before the gratified females." The 

 wild-turkey-cock erects his glittering plumage, expands 

 his finely-zoned tail and barred wing-feathers, and alto- 

 gether, with his gorged crimson and blue wattles, makes 

 a superb, though, to our eyes, grotesque appearance. 

 Similar facts have already been given with respect to 

 grouse of various kinds' Turning to another Order. The 

 male Rupicola crocea (Fig. 50) is one of the most beautiful 

 birds in the world, being of a splendid orange, with some 

 of the feathers curiously truncated and plumose. The fe- 

 male is brownish-green, shaded with red, and has a much 

 smaller crest. Sir R. Schomburgk has described their 

 courtship ; he found one of their meeting-places where ten 

 males and two females were present. The space was 

 from four to five feet tn diameter, and appeared to have 

 been cleared of every blade of grass and smoothed as if 

 by human hands. A male " was capering to the apparent 

 delight of several others. Kow spreading its wings, 



*^ ' Birds of India,' Introduct. vol. i. p. xxiv. ; on the peacock, vol. 

 iii. p. 507. See Gould's ' Introduction to the Trochilidaj,' 1861, pp. 15, 

 111. 



