Chap. Xlli Display by the Male. 40 1 



and has given bright colours to the males of any species, it has 

 also very often given a strong tendency to pugnacity. "We shall 

 meet with nearly analogous cases when we treat of mammals. 

 On the other hand, with birds the power of song and brilliant 

 colours have rarely been both acquired by the males of the same 

 species ; but in this case, the advantage gained would have been 

 the same, namely, success in charming the female. Nevertheless 

 it must be owned that the males of several brilliantly coloured 

 birds have had their feathers specially modified for the sake of 

 producing instrumental music, though the beauty of this cannot 

 be compared, at least according to our taste, with that of the 

 vocal music of many songsters. 



We will now turn to male birds which are not ornamented in 

 any high degree, but which nevertheless display during their 

 courtship whatever attractions they may possess. These cases 

 are in some respects more curious than the foregoing, and have 

 been but little noticed. I owe the following facts to Mr. Weir, 

 who has long kept confined birds of many kinds, including all the 

 British Fringillidse and Emberizidae. The facts have been selected 

 from a large body of valuable notes kindly sent me by him. The 

 bullfinch makes his advances in front of the female, and then 

 puffs out his breast, so that many more of the crimson feathers 

 are seen at once than otherwise would be the case. At the 

 same time he twists and bows his black tail from side to side in 

 a ludicrous manner. The male chaffinch also stands in front of 

 the female, thus shewing his red breast and " blue bell," as the 

 fanciers call his head ; the wings at the same time being slightly 

 expanded, with the pure white bands on the shoulders thus 

 rendered conspicuous. The common linnet distends his rosy 

 breast, slightly expands his brown wings and tail, so as to make 

 the best of them by exhibiting their white edgings. We must, 

 however, be cautious in concluding that the wings are spread 

 out solely for display, as some birds do so whose wings are 

 not beautiful. This is the case with the domestic cock, but it 

 is always the wing on the side opposite to the female which is 

 expanded, and at the same time scraped on the ground. The 

 male goldfinch behaves differently from all other finches : his 

 wings are beautiful, the shoulders being ""black, with the dark- 

 tipped wing-feathers spotted with white and edged with golden 

 yellow. When he courts the female, he sways his body from 

 side to side, and quickly turns his slightly expanded wings first 

 to one side, then to the other, with a golden flashing effect. 

 Mr. Weir informs me that no other British finch turns thus 

 from side to side during his courtship, not even the closely- 

 allied male siskin, for he would not thus add to his beauty. 



