The handicap principle of Zahavi is potentially of great importance to the study of biological communication. Existing models of the handicap principle, however, make the unrealistic assumption that communication is error free. It seems possible, therefore, that Zahavi's arguments do not apply to real signalling systems, in which some degree of error is inevitable. Here, we present a general evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) model of the handicap principle which incorporates perceptual err...