344 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



battle, victors would be the most vigorous males, and these, 

 by reason of this greater vigour, would naturally develop the 

 more beautiful plumage, as in the case of many of the Game- 

 birds. 



He collected, to prove his contentions, a mass of most telling 

 facts, though much of what he regarded as convincing evi- 

 dence others have since endeavoured, with greater or less 

 success, to discount. 



The most striking of his arguments were those based on 

 the displays of the Peacock and Argus Pheasants. The ela- 

 borate and gorgeous train of the one and enormously elongated 

 and wonderful wing feathers of the other, were, he argued, 

 developed through the selective action of the females which 

 persistently choose to mate with the finest performers and 

 most richly coloured. 



The Peacock in display most certainly seems conscious of 

 the gorgeous beauty of his train. As we have already pointed 

 out, when courting he commonly approaches the female with 

 the back of this train, which is anything but beautiful, turned 

 towards her, till, when he judges himself sufficiently near, he 

 swings round, and sets every one of the jewelled eyes in the 

 wonderful fan in rapid vibration, as if to overwhelm her with 

 his splendour. The courtship of the Golden Pheasant is no 

 less significant. Here the wonderful collar of black and 

 gold is swung round, sidewards — it is so spread, in fact, as to 

 present this flaming mass of feathers in its most effective 

 manner. And so too with the Ruff. This bird runs up to his 

 mate, and placing himself directly in front of her, lowers his 

 head till the beak rests upon the ground, then the frill or 

 ruff is expanded to the full ; and in this position he will remain 

 motionless for a minute or more, commonly only to find, on look- 

 ing up, that she has moved off to some distant spot, as though 

 to show that the display of such charms moved her not at all ! 

 Yet, as we shall show, this interpretation is far from correct. 

 The Sun-bittern {Eurypyga) again, under sexual excitement, 

 spreads his wings in front of his body so that they form a 

 great oval shield encircling his neck, while the tail is similarly 

 extended, displaying a broad black semicircle behind the 

 wings ; and this apparently so as to entrance his mate with 

 the exquisitely coloured patterns brought out by this strange 



