xi COLOUR AND SONG 319 



desirable that he should fall a victim to a bird or beast 

 of prey. He takes as proved, what I have said still 

 requires proof, that the cock-birds largely outnumber 

 the hen-birds. But even if this is not so there must 

 in the polygamous species (which are chiefly in ques- 

 tion, for in them the male is most the slave of his 

 plumes) be an excess of male birds. Where this 

 excess exists, the hen-bird, when she is sitting, will be 

 liable to be disturbed by cock-birds which have not 

 found a mate. Certainly, many game-preservers 

 maintain that you get more young pheasants, if you 

 keep down the numbers of the old cocks. Thus the 

 gorgeous plumes and the desperate fights of the 

 pairing season have for their object the reduction of 

 the number of males. 



It may well be thought that there is something of 

 an over-statement here. It might have been safer to 

 formulate it thus, that since the males are largely in 

 excess, Natural Selection ceases in their case to work. 

 They run riot in plumage, because they are of little 

 importance to the species, and it is only for the pre- 

 servation of the species that Natural Selection cares. 

 If a cock-bird's loud song attracts his enemies and so 

 causes his death, there are plenty more to take his place. 

 In the same way, the drones of the beehive, of which 

 there is a monstrous superfluity, are liable to be easily 

 caught, and have no sting to defend themselves with. 

 However great the death-rate among them, the life 

 of the hive goes on and the species continues. Natural 

 Selection does not kill them, but lets them die. 



Thou shalt not kill ; but nced'st not strive 

 Officiously to keep alive. 



