114 



quently, run after the men, why then should not this 

 happen among birds? 



I have witnessed two hen Orioles {^Oriohis kundoo) 

 fighting, presumably over a cock which sat in a tree 

 watching the contest. Similarly I have seen a hen 

 Paradise Flycatcher drive away another hen and then 

 go and spread her wings before a cock bird. 



I know a man who tried by killing the cock to 

 prevent a pair of common Sparrows from nesting 

 in his verandah. The hen shortly after reappeared 

 with another husband. He shared the fate of number 

 one. Nothing daunted, the hen turned up with a 

 third. He, too, died the death, and the process 

 continued until the hen brought along her seventh 

 husband ! Then my friend gave up the unequal con- 

 test. Conversely, a pair of Yellow-throated Sparrows 

 (Gy^nnorhis flavicollis) elected to nest in a hole in an 

 old tree in my ofiice compound ; as specimens of this 

 .species were required for the I^ahore Zoological 

 Gardens, I directed the pair to be caught. My men 

 succeeded in securing the hen, but ihe cock managed 

 to escape. The next day the bird reappeared with a 

 new wife. 



I believe that if ornithologists would set aside 

 pre-conceived ideas and watch birds carefully, they 

 would be able to record many instances of cock birds 

 exercising selection. So great a foothold has Darwin's 

 theory obtained that whenever we see one bird 

 chasing another we at once set the former down as 

 a cock. 



If sexual selection is mutual, as I believe it to- 

 be, we have to find some other explanation of sexual 

 dimorphism, of the more showy plumage of the male. 



