48 
SEXUAL SELECTION : BIKES. 
Part II. 
spurs on each wing ; and these are such formidable wea- 
pons that a single blow has driven a dog howling away. 
But it does not appear that the spurs in this case, or in 
that of some of the spur- winged rails, are larger in the 
male than in the female.^® In certain plovers, however, 
the wing-spurs must be considered as a sexual character. 
Thus in the male of our common peewit {Vanellus cris- 
tatus) the tubercle on the shoulder of the wing becomes 
more prominent during the breeding-season, and the 
males are known to fight together. In some species 
of Lobivanellus a similar tubercle becomes developed 
during the breeding-season ^4ntoa short horny spur.” 
In the Australian L. lobatus both sexes have spurs, but 
these are much larger in the males than in the females. 
In an allied bird, the Ho]pilo]pterus armatus, the spurs 
do not increase in size during the breeding-season ; but 
these birds have been seen in Egypt to fight together, 
in the same manner as our peewits, by turning suddenly 
in the air and striking sideways at each other, some- 
times with a fatal result. Thus also they drive away 
other enemies.^^ 
The season of love is that of battle ; but the males 
of some birds, as of the game-fowl and ruff, and even 
the young males of the wild turkey and grouse,^® are 
ready to fight whenever they meet. The presence of 
the female is the teterrima belli causa. The Bengali 
16 For the Egyptian goose, see Macgillivray, ‘ British Birds/ voL iv. 
p. 639. For Plectropterus, ‘Livingstone’s Travels/ p. 254. For Pala- 
medea, Brehm’s ‘ Thierleben/ B. iv. s. 740. See also on this bird Azara, 
‘ Voyages dans PAmeriqne merid.’ tom. iv. 1809, p. 179, 253. 
See, on onr peewit, Mr. K. Carr in ‘ Land and Water/ Aug. 8th, 
1868, p. 46. In regard to Lobivanellus, see Jerdon’s ‘Birds of India,’ 
vol. hi. p. 647, and Gould’s ‘ Handbook of Birds of Australia,’ vol. ii. 
p. 220. For the Holopterus, see Mr. Allen in the ‘ Ibis/ vol. v. 1863, 
p. 156. 
Audubon, ‘ Ornith, Biography/ vol. ii. p. 492 ; vol. i. p. 4-13. 
