390 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



It must be a grand sight in the forests of India "to come sud- 

 "denly 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 altogether, with his crimson and blue wattles, 

 makes a superb, though to our eyes, grotesque appearance. Simi- 

 lar facts have already been given with respect to grouse of va- 

 rious kinds. Turning to another Order. The male Rupicola cro- 

 cea (fig. 50) is one of the most beautiful birds in the world, being 

 of a splendid orange, with some of the feathers curiously trun- 

 cated and plumose. The female is brownish-green, shaded with 

 red, and has a much smaller crest. Sir R. Schomburgk has de- 

 scribed 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 in 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. Now spreading its wings, throwing up its head, or open- 

 "ing its tail like a fan; now strutting about with a hopping gait 

 "until tired, when it gabbled some kind of note, and was relieved 

 "by another. Thus three of them successively took the field, 

 "and then, with self-approbation, withdrew to rest." The In- 

 dians, in order to obtain their skins, wait at one of the meeting- 

 places till the birds are eagerly engaged in dancing, and then 

 are able to kill with their poisoned arrows four or five males, 

 one after the other." With birds of paradise a dozen or more 

 full-plumaged males congregate in a tree to hold a dancing-party, 

 as it is called by the natives: and here they fly about, raise their 

 wings, elevate their exquisite plumes, and make them vibrate, 

 and the whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace remarks, to toe filled 

 with waving plumes. When thus engaged, they become so ab- 

 sorbed that a skillful archer may shoot nearly the whole party. 

 These birds, when kept in confinement in the Malay Archipelago, 

 are said to take much care in keeping their feathers clean; often 

 spreading them out, examining them, and removing every speck 

 of dirt. One observer, who kept several pairs alive, did not 

 doubt that the display of the male was intended to please tne 

 female.** 



The Gold and Amherst pheasants during their courtship not 

 only expand and raise their splendid frills, but twist them, as I 

 have myself seen, obliquely towards the female on whichever side 



" 'Journal of R. Geograph. Soc' vol. x. 1840, p. 236. 



»8 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. xiii. 1854, p. 157; also Wallace, 

 ibid. vol. XX. 1S57, p. 412, and 'The Malay Arohipelag-o,' vol. ii. 1869, p. 

 252. Also Dr. Bennett, as quoted by Brehm, 'Thierleben,' B. iii. s. 326, 



