Chap. XXL AND CONCLUDING EEMAKKS. 401 



on the wing-featliers of the male. He who thinks that 

 the male was created as he now exists must admit that 

 the great plumes, which prevent the wings from being 

 used for flight, and which, as well as the primary 

 feathers, are displayed in a manner quite peculiar to 

 this one species during the act of courtship, and at no 

 other time, were given to him as an ornament. If so, 

 he must likewise admit that the female was created and 

 endowed with the capacity of appreciating such orna- 

 ments. I differ only in the conviction that the male 

 Argus pheasant acquired his beauty gradually, through 

 the females having preferred during many genera- 

 tions the more highly ornamented males ; the aesthetic 

 capacity of the females having been advanced through 

 exercise or habit in the same manner as our own taste 

 is gradually improved. In the male, through the for- 

 tunate chance of a few feathers not having been modified, 

 we can distinctly see how simple spots with a little 

 fulvous shading on one side might have been de- 

 veloped by small and graduated steps into the won- 

 derful ball-and-socket ornaments ; and it is probable 

 that they were actually thus developed. 



Everyone who admits the principle of evolution, and 

 yet feels great difficulty in admitting that female 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, could have acquired 

 the high standard of taste which is implied by the 

 beauty of the males, and which generally coincides with 

 our own standard, should reflect that in each member 

 of the vertebrate series the nerve-cells of the brain are 

 the direct offshoots of those possessed by the common 

 progenitor of the whole group. It thus becomes intel- 

 ligible that the brain and mental faculties should be 

 capable under similar conditions of nearly the same 

 course of development, and consequently of performing 

 nearly the same functions. 



VOL. IL 2d 



