48 
SEXUAL SELECTION : BIRDS. 
Part j 
spurs on eacli wing ; and these are such formidable we»' 
pons that a single blow has driven a dog howling away- 
But it does not appear that the spurs in this case, or i" 
that of some of the spur-winged rails, are larger in the 
male than in the female . 10 In certain plovers, howeveL 
the wing-spurs must be considered as a sexual character- 
Thus in the male of our common peewit ( Vanellus crt? 
tatus ) the tubercle on the shoulder of the wing become® 
more prominent during the breeding-season, and th e 
males arc known to fight together. In some speck 5 
of Lobivanellus a similar tubercle becomes develop®^ 
during the breeding-season “into a short horny spur. 
In the Australian L. lobatus both sexes have spurs, bid 
these are much larger in the males than in the female 5. 
In an allied bird, the JToplopterus armatus. the spur 5 
do not increase in size during the breeding-season ; bid 
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 . 17 
The season of love is that of battle ; but the male 5 
of some birds, as of the game-fowl and ruff, and eve 11 
the young males of the wild turkey and grouse , 18 aff 
ready to fight whenever they meet. The presence 
the female is the teterrima belli causa. The Bengal 1 
16 for the Egyptian goose, see Mncgillivray, ‘British Birds,’ vol. ,v ' 
p. 039. For Pleetropterus, ‘ Livingstone's Travels,’ p. 254. For l’id r 
raedea. B robin s ‘ Thierleben,’ B. iv. s. 740. See also on this bird Aw rll ‘ 
- Voyages dans I’Amdrique merid.' tom. iv. 1809, p. 179, 253. 
17 See, on our peewit, Mr. It. Carr in ‘ Land and Water,’ Aug. SyJ 
1868, p. 46. In regard to Lobivanellus, see Jerdou’s ‘Birds of Indto 
vol. iii. p. 647, and Gould’s ‘Handbook of Birds of Australia,’ VolA 1, 
p. 220. For the Ilolopterus, see Mr. Allen in the ‘ Ibis,’ vol. v. IS® 3 ’ 
p. 156. 
18 Audubon, ‘ Ornitli. Biography,’ vol. ii. p. 492 ; vol. i. p. 4-13. 
