COLOURS PRODUCED BY COURTSHIP 307 



circus, some ten to twelve feet in diameter, in the 

 forest, which it clears of every leaf and twig and 

 branch, till the ground is perfectly swept and gar- 

 nished. On the margin of this circus there is invari- 

 ably a projecting branch or high-arched root, at a 

 few feet elevation above the ground, on which the 

 female bird takes its place, while in the ring the male 

 — the male birds alone possess great decoration — 

 shows off all his magnificence for the gratification and 

 pleasure of his consort, and to exalt himself in her 

 eyes. When the male bird has been caught . . . the 

 female invariably returns to the same circus with a 

 new mate, even if two or three times in succession her 

 lord should be caught.' ^ 



Although the head of the male is completely 

 shielded by the immense fan-like expansion which he 

 unfurls before the female, he can judge of the impres- 

 sion he is making by pushing his head between two of 

 the feathers, or by peeping round the edge of the fan.^ 



The complete subordination of Sexual to Natural 

 Selection 



Every one will admit that such a process as this has 

 been rigorously checked by the far more important 

 process of Natural Selection. But it does not there- 



' H. 0. Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, p. 131. 



2 Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1874, p. 398, et scq. 



