72 
sexual selection: birds. 
Part H 
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 Trugopan phea* 
sant ( Ceriornis temminchii) swell into a large lapp® 1 
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 abyssinicus ) inflates the 
scarlet bladder-like wattle on its neck, and with its 
wings drooping and tail expanded « makes quite a grand 
“ appearance. 61 Even the iris of the eye is sometime^ 
more brightly coloured in the male than in the female? 
and this is frequently the case with the beak, & r 
instance, in our common black-bird. In Buceros cor 
rugatus, the whole beak and immense casque at® 
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.” 63 
The males .are often ornamented with elongated fen' 
tliers or plumes springing from almost every part of th® 
body. The feathers on the throat and breast are som e ‘ 
times developed iuto beautiful rail's and collars. Th e 
tail-feathers are frequently increased in length ; as 
see in the tail-coverts of the peacock, and in the tail of 
the Argus pheasant. The body of this latter bird is 
larger than that ot 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. 63 The wing-feathers are n° l 
elongated nearly so often as the tail-feathers ; for the' 1 
151 Mr. Monteiro, ‘ Ibis,’ vol. iv. 1862, p. 339. 
62 1 Land and Water,* 1868, p, 217. 
63 Jardine’s 1 Naturalist Library : Birds,’ vol. xiv. p. 166. 
