Chap. XIII. 
DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 
97 
certainly of the highest importance to them, for they 
have been acquired in some cases at the expense of 
greatly impeded powers of flight or of running. The 
African night-jar {Gosmetornis), which during the pair- 
ing-season has one of its primary wing-feathers deve- 
loped into a streamer of extreme length, is thus much 
retarded in its flight, although at other times remark- 
able for its swiftness. The unwieldy size ” of the 
secondary wing-feathers of the male Argus pheasant 
are said “almost entirely to deprive the bird of flight.’’ 
The fine plumes of male Birds of Paradise trouble them 
during a high wind. The extremely long tail-feathers 
of the male widow-birds (Vidua) of Southern Africa 
• render “ their flight heavy ; ” but as soon as these are 
cast off they fly as well as the females. As birds always 
breed when food is abundant, the males probably do 
not suffer much inconvenience in searching for food 
from their impeded powers of movement ; but there can 
hardly be a doubt that they must be much more liable 
to be struck down by birds of prey. Nor can w^e doubt 
that the long train of the peacock and the long tail 
and wing-feathers of the Argus pheasant must render 
them a more easy prey to any prowling tiger-cat than 
would otherwise be the case. Even the bright colours 
of many male birds cannot fail to make them conspi- 
cuous to their enemies of all kinds. Hence it probably 
is, as Mr. Gould has remarked, that such birds are 
generally of a shy disposition, as if conscious that their 
beauty was a source of danger, and are much more diffi- 
cult to discover or approach, than the sombre-coloured 
and comparatively tame females, or than the young 
and as yet unadorned males. 
On the Gosmetornis, see Livingstone’s ‘ Expedition to the Zam- 
besi,’ 1865, p. 66. On the Argus pheasant, Jardine’s ‘ Nat. Hist. Lib. : 
VOL. II. H 
