Chap. XIV.] PREFERENCE BY THE FEMALE. 115 



great pleasure." So that these females apparently prefer 

 the wild to their own males. 24 



Here is a more curious case. Sir R. Heron during 

 many years kept an account of the habits of the peafowl, 

 which he bred in large numbers. He states that " the 

 hens have frequently great preference to a particular pea- 

 cock. They were all so fond of an old pied cock, that one 

 year, Avhen he was confined though still in view, they 

 were constantly assembled close to the trellis-walls of his 

 prison, and would not suffer a japanned peacock to touch 

 them. On his being let out in the autumn, the oldest of 

 the hens instantly courted him, and was successful in her 

 courtship. The next year he was shut up in a stable, and 

 then the hens all courted his rival." 26 This rival was a 

 japanned or black-winged peacock, which to our eyes is a 

 more beautiful bird than the common kind. 



Lichtenstein, who was a good observer and had excel- 

 lent opportunities of observation at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, assured Rudolphi that the female widow-bird 

 (Chera progne) disowns the male, when robbed of the 

 long tail-feathers with which he is ornamented during the 

 breeding-season. I presume that this observation must 

 have been made on birds under confinement. 26 Here is 

 another striking case ; Dr. Jaeger, 27 director of the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens of Vienna, states that a male silver-pheas- 

 ant, who had been triumphant over the other males and 

 was the accepted lover of the females, had his ornamental 

 plumage spoiled. He was then immediately superseded 



24 'Ornithological Biography, 1 vol. i. p. 13. 



25 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1835, p. 54. The japanned peacock is consid 

 cred by Mr. Sclater as a distinct species, and has been named Pavo vi 

 gripennte. 



26 Rudolphi, 'Beytrage zur Anthropologic,' 1812, s. 184. 



27 * Pie Darwin'sche Theorie, und ihre Stellung zu Moral und Religion, 

 1869, s 59. 



