WAR AND, WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 67 
none carry bucklers. The hackles of cocks, some 
plovers’, ruffs, etc., while having the appearance of 
shields, seem merely terrifying or ornamental instru- 
ments, for there is no doubt that one highly orna- 
mented male can tantalize or humiliate his rival by 
the exhibition of his own beauty. Birds know each 
other’s weak places and beauty spots, and direct their 
attacks at them; and it frequently happens here as 
elsewhere that a bird is weakest where he is prettiest. 

The European cuckoo. 
From our standpoint, the weapon seems a cruel 
instrument, but in the purposes of Nature it has been 
a means of progress and betterment of the species. 
The outlook for a higher development, when moral 
growth found poor soil for its lodgment, lay in some 
sort of suppression of the weak and sickly and in the 
survival or predominance of the strong and healthy. 
