114 HEREDITY AND SEX 



Again, Wallace says: ''To conscious sexual selec- 

 tion — that is, the actual choice by the females of the 

 more brilliantly colored males or the rejection of those 

 less gaily colored — I believe very little if any effect 

 is directly due. It is undoubtedly proved that in 

 birds the females do sometimes exert a choice ; but 

 the evidence of this fact, collected by Mr. Darwin 

 ('Descent of Man,' chap, xiv), does not prove that color 

 determines that choice, while much of the strongest 

 evidence is directly opposed to this view." 



Again, Wallace says: "Amid the copious mass of 

 facts and opinions collected by Mr. Darwin as to the 

 display of color and ornaments by the male birds, there 

 is a total absence of any evidence that the females, as 

 a rule, admire or even notice this display. The hen, 

 the turkey, and the peafowl go on feeding, while the 

 male is displaying his finery ; and there is reason to 

 believe that it is his persistency and energy rather than 

 his beauty which wins the day." 



Hudson, who has studied the habits of birds in the 

 field, asks some very pertinent questions in connec- 

 tion with their performances of different kinds. "What 

 relation to the passion of love and to the business of 

 courtship have these dancing and vocal performances 

 in nine cases out of ten ? In such cases, for instance, 

 as that of the scissor-tail tyrant-bird, and its pyro- 

 technic displays, when a number of couples leave their 

 nests containing eggs and young to join in a wild aerial 

 dance ; the mad exhibition of grouped wings ; the 

 triplet dances of the spur- winged lapwing, to perform 

 which two birds already mated are compelled to call 

 in a third bird to complete the set ; the harmonious 



