SEXUAL SELECTION 657 



peacock. Let us look to tlie allied Gallinaceae for any still- 

 existing gradations. The species and sub-species of Poly- 

 plectron inhabit countries adjacent to the native land of the 

 peacock ; and they so far resemble this bird that they are 

 sometimes called peacock-pheasants. I am also informed 

 by Mr. Bartlett that they resemble the peacock in their 

 voice and in some of their habits. During the spring the 

 males, as previously described, strut about before the com- 

 paratively plain -colored females, expanding and erecting 

 their tail and wing-feathers, which are ornamented with 

 numerous ocelli. I request the reader to turn back to the 

 drawing (Fig. 51, p. 514) of a Polyplectron. In P. napo- 

 leonis the ocelli are confined to the tail and the back is 

 of a rich metallic blue; in which respects this species ap- 

 proaches the Java peacock. P. hardvnclcii possesses a pe- 

 culiar topknot, which is also somewhat like that of the Java 

 peacock. In all the species the ocelli on the wings and tail 

 are either circular or oval, and consist of a beautiful, iri- 

 descent, greenish blue or greenish purple disk, with a black 

 border. This border in P. chinquis shades into brown, 

 edged with cream-color, so that the ocellus is here sur- 

 rounded with variously shaded, though not bright, concen- 

 tric zones. The unusual length of the tail-coverts is another 

 remarkable character in Polyplectron; for in some of the 

 species they are half, and in others two-thirds as long as 

 the true tail-feathers. The tail-coverts are ocellated as in 

 the peacock. Thus the several species of Polyplectron 

 manifestly make a graduated approach to the peacock in 

 the length of their tail-coverts, in the zoning of the ocelli, 

 and in some other characters. 



Notwithstanding this approach, the first species of Poly- 

 plectron which I examined almost made me give up the 

 search; for I found not only that the true tail-feathers, 

 which in the peacock are quite plain, were ornamented 

 with ocelli, but that the ocelli on all the feathers differed 

 fundamentally from those of the peacock, in there being 

 two on the same feather (Fig. 55), one on each side of the 



