312 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS cHapP. 
existence. The portentous feathers carried by the 
Argus Pheasant render him nearly incapable of 
flight: he keeps to the jungle and trusts to his running 
power. The comb and gills of a Gamecock put him at 
a great disadvantage with an antagonist who has had 
them trimmed off. The Bird of Paradise with his 
forest of plumes, and the Lyre Bird with his far- 
spreading burden of beauty, seem very ill-fitted for the 
struggle of life. Of Peacocks a good authority writes: 
“ Peafowl run very fast, but the old cocks, burdened 
with tails six feet in length, are poor flyers ; and I have 
frequently seen my men run them down during the 
hot hours of the day by forcing them to take two or 
three long flights in succession, in places where they 
could be driven from one detached piece of jungle to 
another.” ! The question, then, was to prove (1) that 
the cock-birds largely outnumbered the hens so that 
some would necessarily remain without mates; (2) 
that the hen-bird actually did exert a choice. The 
evidence on the first point is still insufficient. Dr. 
Guillemard mentions in the Cruzse of the Marchesa, 
that his collection of birds included 584 males, 285 
females, and 111 of undetermined sex. This seems 
to show a large preponderance of males. But the 
male is the more conspicuous, and therefore is more 
likely to be shot. The question, however, is not so 
important as it might appear, since a large number of 
the species in which the cock-bird has the grander 
plumage are polygamous, and in them the number 
of males is obviously excessive. Even in the case 
of monogamous species Darwin was able to argue 
1 Hume and Marshall’s Game Bérds of India, vol. i., p. 88. 
