|
Bullseye
|
* See also Ornamental Poultry, by Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1848, p. 8.
*(2) Birds of India, introduct., vol. i., p. xxiv.; on the
peacock, vol. iii., p. 507. See Gould's Introduction to Trochilidae,
1861, pp. 15 and 111.
It must be a grand sight in the forests of India "to come suddenly
on twenty or thirty pea-fowl, the males displaying their gorgeous
trains, and strutting about in all the pomp of pride before the
gratified females." The wild turkey-**** erects his glittering
plumage, expands his finely-zoned tail and barred wing-feather, and
altogether, with his crimson and blue wattles, makes a superb, though,
to our eye, grotesque appearance. Similar facts have already been
given with respect to grouse of various kinds. Turning to another
Order: The male Rupicola crocea (see fig. 50) is one of the most
beautiful birds in the world, being of a splendid orange, with some of
the feathers curiously truncated and plumose. The female is
brownish-green, shaded with red, and has a much smaller crest. Sir
R. Schomburgk has described their courtship; he found one of their
meeting-places where ten males and two females were present. The space
was from four to five feet in diameter, and appeared to have been
cleared of every blade of grass and smoothed as if by human hands. A
male "was capering, to the apparent delight of several others. Now
spreading its wings, throwing up its head, or opening its tail like
a fan; now strutting about with a hopping gait until tired, when it
gabbled some kind of note, and was relieved by another. Thus three
of them successively took the field, and then, with
self-approbation, withdrew to rest." The Indians, in order to obtain
their skins, wait at one of the meeting-places till the birds are
eagerly engaged in dancing, and then are able to kill with their
poisoned arrows four or five males, one after the other.* With birds
of paradise a dozen or more full-plumaged males congregate in a tree
to hold a dancing-party, as it is called by the natives: and here they
fly about, raise their wings, elevate their exquisite plumes, and make
them vibrate, and the whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace remarks, to
be filled with waving plumes. When thus engaged, they become so
absorbed that a skilful archer may shoot nearly the whole party. These
birds, when kept in confinement in the Malay Archipelago, are said
to take much care in keeping their feathers clean; often spreading
them out, examining them, and removing every speck of dirt. One
observer, who kept several pairs alive, did not doubt that the display
of the male was intended to please the female.*(2)
* Journal of R. Geograph. Soc., vol. x., 1840, p. 236.
*(2) Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. xiii., 1854, p. 157; also
Wallace, ibid., vol. xx., 1857, p. 412, and The Malay Archipelago,
vol. ii., 1869, p. 252. Also Dr. Bennett, as quoted by Brehm,
Illustriertes Thierleben, B. iii., s. 326.
The gold and Amherst pheasants during their courtship not only
expand and raise their splendid frills, but twist them, as I have
myself seen, obliquely towards the female on whichever side she may be
standing, obviously in order that a large surface may be displayed
before her.* They likewise turn their beautiful tails and tail-coverts
a little towards the same side. Mr. Bartlett has observed a male
Polyplectron (see fig. 51) in the act of courtship, and has shown me a
specimen stuffed in the attitude then assumed. The tail and
wing-feathers of this bird are ornamented with beautiful ocelli,
like those on the peacock's train. Now when the peacock displays
himself, he expands and erects his tail transversely to his body,
for he stands in front of the female, and has to shew off, at the same
time, his rich blue throat and breast. But the breast of the
Polyplectron is obscurely coloured, and the ocelli are not confined to
the tail-feathers. Consequently the Polyplectron does not stand in
front of the female; but he erects and expands his tail-feathers a
little obliquely, lowering the expanded wing on the same side, and
raising that on the opposite side. In this attitude the ocelli over
the whole body are exposed at the same time before the eyes of the
admiring female in one grand bespangled expanse. To whichever side she
may turn, the expanded wings and the obliquely-held tail are turned
towards her. The male tragopan pheasant acts in nearly the same
manner, for he raises the feathers of the body, though not the wing
itself, on the side which is opposite to the female, and which would
otherwise be concealed, so that nearly all the beautifully spotted
feathers are exhibited at the same time.
* Mr. T. W. Wood has given (The Student, April, 1870, p. 115) a full
account of this manner of display, by the gold pheasant and by the
Japanese pheasant, Ph. versicolor; and he calls it the lateral or
one-sided display.
The Argus pheasant affords a much more remarkable case. The
immensely developed secondary wing-feathers are confined to the
male; and each is ornamented with a row of from twenty to twenty-three
ocelli, above an inch in diameter. These feathers are also elegantly
marked with oblique stripes and rows of spots of a dark colour, like
those on the skin of a tiger and leopard combined. These beautiful
ornaments are hidden until the male shows himself off before the
female. He then erects his tail, and expands his wing-feathers into
a great, almost upright, circular fan or shield, which is carried in
front of the body. The neck and head are held on one side, so that
they are concealed by the fan; but the bird in order to see the
female, before whom he is displaying himself, sometimes pushes his
head between two of the long wing-feathers (as Mr. Bartlett has seen),
and then presents a grotesque appearance. This must be a frequent
habit with the bird in a state of nature, for Mr. Bartlett and his son
on examining some perfect skins sent from the East, found a place
between two of the feathers which was much frayed, as if the head
had here frequently been pushed through. Mr. Wood thinks that the male
can also peep at the female on one side, beyond the margin of the fan.
The ocelli on the wing-feathers are wonderful objects; for they
are so shaded that, as the Duke of Argyll remarks,* they stand out
like balls lying loosely within sockets. When I looked at the specimen
in the British Museum, which is mounted with the wings expanded and
trailing downwards, I was however greatly disappointed, for the ocelli
appeared flat, or even concave. But Mr. Gould soon made the case clear
to me, for he held the feathers erect. in the position in which they
would naturally be displayed, and now from the light shining on them
from above each ocellus at once resembled the ornament called a ball
and socket. These feathers have been shewn to several artists, and all
have expressed their admiration at the perfect shading. It may well be
asked, could such artistically shaded ornaments have been formed by
means of sexual selection? But it will be convenient to defer giving
an answer to this question until we treat in the next chapter of the
principle of gradation.
* The Reign of Law, 1867, p. 203.
|
