72 
SEXUAL SELECTION: BIEDS. 
Part II. 
ornaments, though not always ornamental in our eyes ; 
for whilst the male is in the act of courting the female, 
they often swell and assume more vivid tints, as in the 
case of the male turkey. At such times the fleshy ap- 
pendages about the head of the male Tragopan phea- 
sant (Geriornis temminckii) swell into a large lappet 
on the throat and into two horns, one on each side of 
the splendid top-knot ; and these are then coloured of 
the most intense blue which I have ever beheld. The 
African hornbill {Bucorax dbyssinicus) inflates tke 
scarlet bladder-like wattle on its neck, and with its 
wiogs drooping and tail expanded makes quite a grand 
appearance.” Even the iris of the eye is sometimes 
more brightly coloured in the male than in the female ; 
and this is frequently the case with the beak, for 
instance, in our common black-bird. In Buceros cor- 
Tugatus, the whole beak and immense casque are 
coloured more conspicuously in the male than in the 
female ; and the oblique grooves upon the sides of 
the lower mandible are peculiar to the male sex.” 
The males are often ornamented with elongated fea- 
thers or plumes springing from almost every part of the 
body. The feathers on the throat and breast are some- 
times developed into beautiful ruffs and collars. The 
tail-feathers are frequently increased in length ; as w^e 
see in the tail-coverts of the peacock, and in the tail of 
the Argus pheasant. The body of this latter bird is not 
larger than that of a fowl ; yet the length from the end 
of the beak to the extremity of the tail is no less than 
five feet three inches.^^ The wing-feathers are not 
elongated nearly so often as the tail-feathers ; for their 
Mr. Monteiro, ‘ Ibis/ vol. iv. 1862, p. 339. 
‘ Land and W^ater/ 1868, p. 217. 
Jardine’s ^ Naturali^,t Libiary : Birds,’ vol. xiv. p. 166. 
