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Updated: May 21, 2025
With many gallinaceous species the sexes differ to an extreme degree, as with the peacock, pheasant, and fowl, whilst with other species there has been a partial or even complete transference of character from the male to the female. The females of the several species of Polyplectron exhibit in a dim condition, and chiefly on the tail, the splendid ocelli of their males.
Let us look to the allied Gallinaceae for any still-existing gradations. The species and sub- species of Polyplectron inhabit countries adjacent to the native land of the peacock; and they so far resemble this bird that they are sometimes called peacock-pheasants. I am also informed by Mr. Bartlett that they resemble the peacock in their voice and in some of their habits.
If we picture to ourselves a progenitor of the peacock in an almost exactly intermediate condition between the existing peacock, with his enormously elongated tail-coverts, ornamented with single ocelli, and an ordinary gallinaceous bird with short tail-coverts, merely spotted with some colour, we shall see a bird allied to Polyplectron that is, with tail-coverts, capable of erection and expansion, ornamented with two partially confluent ocelli, and long enough almost to conceal the tail- feathers, the latter having already partially lost their ocelli.
Thus the several species of Polyplectron manifestly make a graduated approach to the peacock in the length of their tail-coverts, in the zoning of the ocelli, and in some other characters. Part of a tail-covert of Polyplectron chinquis, with the two ocelli of natural size. Hence I concluded that the early progenitors of the peacock could not have resembled a Polyplectron.
The tail-feathers in both species of the peacock are entirely destitute of ocelli, and this apparently is related to their being covered up and concealed by the long tail-coverts. In this respect they differ remarkably from the tail-feathers of Polyplectron, which in most of the species are ornamented with larger ocelli than those on the tail-coverts.
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.
The indentation of the central disc and of the surrounding zones of the ocellus, in both species of peacock, speaks plainly in favour of this view, and is otherwise inexplicable. The males of Polyplectron are no doubt beautiful birds, but their beauty, when viewed from a little distance, cannot be compared with that of the peacock.
The unusual length of the tail-coverts is another remarkable character in Polyplectron; for in some of the species they are half, and in others two-thirds as long as the true tail-feathers. The tail-coverts are ocellated as in the peacock.
Now in P. malaccense, the two central tail-feathers alone are ornamented, each with two brightly-coloured ocelli, the inner ocellus having completely disappeared from all the other tail-feathers. Consequently the tail- coverts and tail-feathers of this species of Polyplectron make a near approach in structure and ornamentation to the corresponding feathers of the peacock.
Polyplectron, number of spurs in; display of plumage by the male; gradation of characters in; female of. Polyplectron chinquis. Polyplectron Hardwickii. Polyplectron malaccense. Polyplectron Napoleonis. Polyzoa. Pomotis. Pontoporeia affinis. Porcupine, mute, except in the rutting season. Pores, excretory, numerical relation of, to the hairs in sheep. Porpitae, bright colours of some.
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