46 
SEXUAL SELECTION : BINDS. 
Part II.. 
The peacock with his long train appears more like a 
dandy than a warrior, but he sometimes engages in 
fierce contests: the Eev. W. Darwin Fox informs mo 
that two peacocks became so excited whilst fighting at 
some little distance from Chester that they flew over 
the whole city, still fighting, until they alighted on the 
top of St. John's tower. 
The spur, in those gallinaceous birds which are thus 
provided, is generally single ; but Polyplectron (see 
fig. 51, p. 90) has two or more on each leg; and one of 
the Blood-pheasants {Ithaginis 'cruentus) has been seen 
with five spurs. The spurs are generally confined to the 
male, being represented by mere knobs or rudiments in 
the female ; but the females of the Java peacock (Pavo 
muticus) and, as I am informed by Mr. Blyth, of the small 
fire-backed pheasant {JEuplocamus erythropthahnus) pos- 
sess spurs. In Calloperdix it is usual for the males to 
have two spurs, and for the females to have only one 
on each leg.^^ Hence spurs may safely be considered as 
a masculine character, though occasionally transferred 
in a greater or less degree to the females. Like most 
other secondary sexual characters, the spurs are highly 
variable both in number and development in the same 
species. 
Various birds have spurs on their wings. But the 
Egyptian goose (Chenalopex fegypfiaeus) has only bare 
obtuse knobs,” and these probably shew us the first 
steps by which true spurs have been developed in other 
allied birds. In the spur-winged goose, Plecfropterm 
gamhensis, the males have much larger spurs than the 
females ; and they use them, as I am informed by Mr, 
Bartlett, in fighting together, so that, in this case, the 
Jerdon, ‘ Birds of India :* on Ithaginis, vol. iii. p. 523; on Gallo- 
perdix, p. 541. 
