102 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
and gradually they will get more and more beautiful, 
because their wives will always choose them for their 
beauty. But the young female Birds of Paradise 
will always be like their mothers, and will not be- 
come more beautiful than they are, because hen Birds 
of Paradise are not chosen for their beauty, but only 
for their good qualities. 
Now, if this is true, it shows how sensible the Birds 
of Paradise must be, for all sewsib/e persons would 
choose their wives for their good qualities, and not 
just for their beauty. The worst of it is that there 
are so many persons who are not qui/e sensible. Still, 
even with us, there are a good many wives who must, 
I think, have been chosen, like the hen Birds of Para- 
dise, for their good qualities—which, of course, is what 
they ought to be chosen for. 
That is how some people explain why the male 
Birds of Paradise, and other beautiful male birds, are 
so much more beautiful than the females. They say 
that they have gradually got more and more beautiful, 
whilst the hens have remained plain, and that once 
upon a time there was not so very much difference 
between them. And if you ask them why the males 
and females of other birds are both as beautiful as 
each other, they will tell you that the children of 
those birds were always like the father, so that, as the 
father birds became beautiful—for they were chosen 
