Identifier: descentofmansele02darw (find matches)
Title: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex
Year: 1871 (1870s)
Authors: Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
Subjects: Evolution Natural selection Heredity Human beings -- Origin Evolution
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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of the female, and has to shew off, at the sametime, his rich blue throat and breast. But the breastof the Polyplectron is obscurely coloured, and the ocelliare not confined to the tail-feathers. Consequently thePolyplectron does not stand in front of the female; buthe erects and expands his tail-feathers a little obliquely. S3 Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. xiii. 1854, p. 157; alsoWallace, ibid, vol, xx. 1857, p. 412, and The Malay Areiiipelago, vol.ii. 1869, p 252. Also Dr. Bennett, as quoted by Biehm, Tliieiieben,B. iii. s. 826. s-i Mr. T. W. Wood has given (The Student, April, 1870, p. 115) afull account of this manner of display, which he calls the lateral orone-sided, by the gold pheasant and by the Japanese isheasant, Ph.versicolor. 90 SEXUAL selection: bikds. Part IL lowei-iiig the expanded wing on the same side, andraising that on the opposite side. In this attitude theocelli over tbe whole body are exposed before the eyesof the admiring female in one grand bespangled ex-
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Chap. XIII. DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 91 panse. To whichever side she may turn, the expandedwings and the obliquely-held tail are turned towardsher. The male Tragopan pheasant acts in nearly thesame manner, for he raises the feathers of the body,though not the wing itself, on the side which is oppositeto the female, and which would otherwise be concealed,so that nearly all the beautifully-spotted feathers areexhibited at the same time. The case of the Argus pheasant is still more striking.The immensely developed secondary wing-feathers, whichare confined to the male, are ornamented with a row offrom twenty to twenty-three ocelli, each above an inch indiameter. The feathers are also elegantly marked withoblique dark stripes and rows of spots, like those on theskin of a tiger and leopard combined. The ocelli areso beautifully shaded that, as the Duke of Argyll re-marks,^^ they stand out like a ball lying loosely withina socket. But when I looked at the specimen in theBritish Museum, which is

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