520 THE DESCENT OF MA1<I 



pheasant are said "almost entirely to deprive the bird of 

 flight. ' ' The fine plumes of male birds of paradise trouble 

 them during a high wind. The extremely long tail-feathers 

 of the male widow-birds (Yidua) of southern Africa render 

 "their flight heavy"; but as soon as these are cast oflE they 

 fly as well as the females. As birds always breed when 

 food is abundant, the males probably do not suffer much 

 inconvenience in searching for food from their impeded 

 powers of movement ; but there can hardly be a doubt that 

 they must be much more liable to be struck down by birds 

 of prey. Nor can we doubt that the long train of the 

 peacock and the long tail and wing-feathers of the Argus 

 pheasant must render them an easier prey to any prowling 

 tiger-cat than would otherwise be the case. Even the 

 bright colors of many male birds cannot fail to make them 

 conspicuous to their enemies of all kinds. Hence, as Mr. 

 Gould has remarked, it probably is that such birds are 

 generally of a shy disposition, as if conscious that their 

 beauty was a source of danger, and are much more difficult 

 to discover or approach than the sombre-colored and com- 

 paratively tame females, or than the young and as yet un- 

 adorned males."' 



It is a more curious fact that the males of some birds 

 which are provided with special weapons for battle, and 

 which in a state of nature are so pugnacious that they often 

 kill each other, suffer from possessing certain ornaments. 

 Cock-fighters trim the hackles and cut off the combs and 

 gills of their cocks; and the birds are then said to be 

 dubbed. An undubbed bird, as Mr. Tegetmeier insists, 

 "is at a fearful disadvantage; the comb and gills offer an 

 easy hold to his adversary's beak, and as a cock always 

 strikes where he holds, when once he has seized his foe, 



*8 On the Cosmetornis, see Livingstone's "Expedition to the Zambesi," 

 1865, p. 66. On the Argus pheasant, Jardine's "Nat. Hist. Lib. : Birds," 

 vol. xiv. p. 167. On Birds of Paradise, Lesson, quoted by Brehm, "Thier- 

 leben," B. iii. s. 325. On the widow-bird, Barrow's "Travels in Africa," 

 vol. i. p. 243, and "Ibis," vol. iii., 1861, p. 133. Mr. Gould, on the shyness 

 of male birds, "Handbook to Birds of Australia," vol. L, 1866, pp. 210, 467. 



