SEXUAL SELECTION 5H 



ftve feet in diameter, aud appeared to have been cleared o{ 

 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 

 opening its 'tail like a fan; now strutting about with a hop- 

 ping 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 Indians, in order to Ofbtain 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 f all-plumaged males con- 

 gregate in a tree to hold a dancing-party, as it is called by 

 the natives ; and here they fly about, raise their wings, ele- 

 vate their exquisite plumes, and make them vibrate, and the 

 whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace remarks, to be filled with 

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

 sorbed that a skilfal 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 the 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 toward the female 

 on whichever side she may be standing, obviously in order 

 that a large surface may be displayed before her.** They 



w See the "Journal of the Eoyal Geographical Society," voL x., 1840, 

 p. 236. 



88 "Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. xiii., 1854, p. 157; also Wallace, 

 Ibid., voL XX., 1857, p. 412, and "The Malay Archipelago," vol. H., 1869, 

 V. 252. Also Ihr. Bennett, as quoted by Brehm, "Thierleben," B. Jii s. 326. 



89 Mr. T. W. Wood has given ("The Student," April, 1870, p. 115) a full 

 account of this manner of display, by the Gold pheasant aud by the Japaneao 

 nbeasant. Ph. versicolor; and he calls it the lateral or one-sided display. 



