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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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gued that the females had aboriginally been<br />

furnished with well-developed spurs, but that<br />

these had subsequently been lost through disuse<br />

or natural selection. But if this view be admitted,<br />

it would have to be extended to innumerable<br />

other cases; and it implies that the female<br />

progenitors <strong>of</strong> the existing spur-bearing<br />

species were once encumbered with an injurious<br />

appendage.<br />

In some few genera and species, as in Galloperdix,<br />

Acomus, and the Javan peacock (Pavo<br />

muticus), the females, as well as the males, possess<br />

well- developed leg-spurs. Are we to infer<br />

from this fact that they construct a different sort<br />

<strong>of</strong> nest from that made by their nearest allies,<br />

and not liable to be injured by their spurs; so<br />

that the spurs have not been removed? Or are<br />

we to suppose that the females <strong>of</strong> these several<br />

species especially require spurs for their defence?<br />

It is a more probable conclusion that both<br />

the presence and absence <strong>of</strong> spurs in the fema-

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