132 BOMBAY DUCKS 



insects and lizards. They also eat snakes, and hence 

 are useful birds to have in the compound. 



As is known to everybody, peafowl are sexually 

 dimorphic. The male only carries the gorgeous train. 

 The female is by comparison a bird of sombre hues. 

 Darwin explains the beauty of the male bird by the 

 theory of sexual selection, the preference of the females 

 for showy husbands, while they themselves are not 

 similarly arrayed ; for were they thus resplendent they 

 would be very conspicuous when sitting on their eggs, 

 hence Natural Selection has tended to keep the plumage 

 of the females of a dull, uniform colour. However, it 

 seems to me that this theory fails to account for all the 

 brilliant hues of the male bird, for all the wonderful 

 markings on each of the feathers of his train. Nor does 

 the theory of Wallace, that these are the expression of 

 the great vital force, of the abundance of energy in 

 which the bird rejoices. Animal colouration forms one 

 of the most interesting of scientific studies, and it seems 

 to me that explanations have yet to be found of not 

 a few of the shades and markings which render the 

 plumage of many birds so indescribably beautiful. 



The science of animal colouration is in its infancy ; 

 yet popular books on natural history give one to under- 

 stand that the last word has been said on the subject. 



