SEXUAL SELECTION 478 



in the course of one morning several Balz-plaoes, which 

 remain the same during successive years." 



The peacock with his long train appears more like a 

 dandy than a warrior, but he sometimes engages in fierce 

 contests : the Eev. W. Darwin Pox informs me that at some 

 little distance from Chester two peacocks became so excited 

 while fighting that they flew over the whole city, still en- 

 gaged, until they alighted on the top of St. John's tower. 



The spur, in those gallinaceous ^birds which are thus 

 provided, is generally single; but Polypleotron (see Fig. 

 51, p. 512) has two or more on each leg; and one of the 

 Blood-pheasants {^Ithaginis cruentus) has been seen with five 

 spurs. The spurs are generally confined to the male, being 

 represented by mere knobs or rudiments in the female; but 

 the females of the Java peacock {Pavo muiicus) and, as I am 

 informed by Mr. Blyth, of the small fire-backed pheasant 

 {Euplocamus erythropthalmus) possess spurs. In Galloper- 

 dix it is usual for the males to have two spurs, and for the 

 females to have only one on each leg." Hence spurs may 

 be considered as a masculine structure, which has been 

 occasionally more or less transferred to the females. Like 

 most other secondary sexual characters, the spurs are 

 highly variable, both in number and development, in the 

 same species. 



Various birds have spurs on their wings. But the 

 Egyptian goose {Ghenahpex cegyptiacus) has only "bare ob- 

 tuse knobs," and these probably show us the first steps 

 by which true spurs have been developed in other species. 

 In the spur-winged goose, Plectropterus gambensis, the males 

 have much larger spurs than the females; and they use 

 Them, as I am informed by Mr. Bartlett, in fighting to- 

 gether, so that, in this case, the wing-spurs serve as sexual 



'« Brehm, "Illust. Thierleben," 1867, B. iv. s. 351. Some of the fore- 

 going statements are taken from L. Lloyd, "The Game Birds of Sweden," 

 etc., 1861, p. 79. 



" Jerdon, "Birds of India: on Ithaginis," vol. iii. p. 523; on Galloperdi^ 

 p. 54X. 



