Chap. XIII.] DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 89 



depended on the great size of his plumes, and on the elab- 

 oration of the most elegant patterns. Many will declare 

 that it is utterly incredible that a female bird should be 

 able to appreciate fine shading and exquisite patterns. It 

 is undoubtedly a marvellous fact that she should possess 

 this almost human degree of taste, though? perhaps she 

 admires the general effect rather than each separate de- 

 tail. He who thinks that he can safely gauge the discrimi- 

 nation and taste of the lower animals, may deny that the 

 female Argus pheasant can appreciate such refined beau- 

 ty ; but he will then be compelled to admit that the ex- 

 traordinary attitudes assumed by the male during the act 

 of courtship, by which the wonderful beauty of his plu- 

 mage is fully displayed, are purposeless ; and this is a con- 

 clusion which I for one will never admit. 



Although so many pheasants and allied gallinaceous 

 birds carefully display their beautiful plumage before the 

 females, it is remarkable, as Mr. Bartlett informs me, that 

 this is not the case with the dull-colored Eared and Cheer 

 pheasants ( Crossoptilon awitum and Phasianus •Walli- 

 chil) ; so that these birds seem conscious that they have 

 little beauty to display. Mr. Bartlett has never seen the 

 males of either of these species fighting together, though 

 he has not had such good opportunities for observing the 

 Cheer as the Eared pheasant. Mr. Jenner Weir, also, 

 finds that all male birds with rich or strongly-character- 

 ized plumage are more quarrelsome than the dull-colored 

 species belonging to the same groups. The goldfinch, for 

 instance, is far more pugnacious than the linnet, and the 

 blackbird than the thrush. Those birds which undergo a 

 seasonal change of plumage likewise become much more 

 pugnacious at the period when they are most gayly orna- ■ 

 mented. No doubt the males of some obscurely-colored 

 birds fight desperately together, but it appears that when 

 sexual selection has been highly influential, and has given 



