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Show 46 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. PAnT H. The peacock with his long train appears more like a dandy than a warrior, but he sometimes engages in fierce contests: the Rev. W. Darwin Fox informs me that two peacocks became so excited whilst fighting at some little distance from Chester that they flow over the whole city, still fighting, until they a11ghtocl on tho top of St. John's tower. The spur, in those gallinaceous birds which are thus provided, is generally single; but Polyplectron (. eo fig. 51, p. 90) bas two or more on each leg; and one of the Blood-pheasants (Ithaginis ·cruentus) has been seen with five spurs. The spurs are generally confined to the male, being represented by mere knobs or rudiments in the female; but the females of the Java peacock (Pavo muticus) and, as I am informed by l\'(r. Blyth, of the small fire-backed pheasant (Euplocamus erythropthalmus) possess spurs. In Galloperdix it is usual for the males to have two spurs, and for the females to have only one on each leg.15 Hence spurs may safely be considered as a masculine character, though occasionally transferred in a greater or loss degree to tho females. Like most other secondary sexual characters, the spurs are highl ~r variaule both in number and development in the same species. Various birds have spurs on their wings. But tho Egyptian goose ( Ohenalopex mgyptiacus) has only "bare "obtuse knobs," and these probably shew us the first steps by which true spurs have been developed in other allied birds. In the spur-winged goose, Plectroptet~~s gambensis, the males have much larger spurs than the females ; and they use them, as I am informed by 1\fr. Bartlett, in fighting together, so that, in this case, the 15 J ordon, 'Birds of Inclin :' on Ithnginis, vol. iii. p. !i23; on Gnllopcrdix, p. 541. CHAP. XIII. LAW OF BATTLE. 47 :=~-~~=> :-' - ·---.__ -- ~._,-;...- Fig. 3S. Pnlamedea cornutn (fr om B re-hm)-, she-win-g t-he- do-uble-wing-spurs, nnd the filament on the head. |