The Study of Sexual Selection 



Evidently beauty does not count for much 

 with the park duck, and the same seems to 

 be the case with the fowl. As a boy, I often 

 used to visit a yard wherein was a very varied 

 assortment of fowls. Among these was one 

 very handsome cock, of the typical black and 

 red colouring of the wild bird, and very fully 

 "furnished" in the matter of hackle and sickle 

 feathers. Yet the hens held him in no great 

 account, while the master of the yard, a big 

 black bird, with much Spanish blood, provided 

 with a huge pair of spurs, was so admired 

 that he was always attended by some little 

 bantam hens, although they might have had 

 diminutive husbands of their own class. 



It must be remembered, however, that these 

 ducks and fowls had an unnaturally wide choice. 

 In nature varieties are rare, and the competing 

 suitors are likely to be all very much alike ; 

 this makes matters very difficult for the observer, 

 who may easily pass over small differences which 

 are plain enough to the eyes of the hen birds. 



This being so, experiment offers a better 

 mode of solving the problem than ordinary 

 observation, and is not difficult to carry out, 

 provided a proper choice of subjects be made. 

 What one needs is birds which are not domesti- 

 cated, but display naturally sufficient difference 

 in the plumage of the males to be readily 



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