124 Recent Literature. u&n 



brooding and the subsequent care of the young.". . . .Furthermore, "the 

 male who, either by vanquishing his rivals or who by strength and persis- 

 tency most frequently and effectively displayed, will win the hen, regardless 

 of whether the actual process be by aesthetic appreciation or by some sub- 

 conscious hypnotic-like influence." 



While we must admit the hypnotic power of the wonderful display of 

 the gorgeous cock-pheasants of many species, we must also, it would seem, 

 admit that all things have a beginning, and how the crude one-wing dis- 

 play of our familiar barnyard cock could have any such hypnotic influence 

 and prove so successful as to start the evolution of the splendid plumage of 

 the Argus and other pheasants we cannot conceive. At the same time we 

 fully admit the strength of Capt. Beebe's contention that we cannot view 

 these things through the bird's eyes nor they through ours. Furthermore 

 we might suggest that the remarkable regularity of the date of migration 

 in transient birds as well as that of the date of nesting would seem to point 

 to the fact that the various instinctive impulses to which our author refers 

 are physiological and are started with a regularity so remarkable that it 

 would hardly seem susceptible of being stimulated by display on the part 

 of the male or by any other external factor. It is not commendable to 

 offer only destructive criticism, but the reviewer must confess himself 

 without any alternative suggestion and is entirely in accord with Capt. 

 Beebe's opening sentence, that "It is staggering to the student of evolution 

 to attempt to explain the origin and development of such a structure as the 

 orange and black ruff of the Golden Pheasant." 



It is impossible in the short space of a review to consider the systematic 

 portion of this splendid work in detail. We have already referred to the 

 accounts of the birds in their native haunts. In these Capt. Beebe has 

 managed to incorporate to a remarkable degree the environment of the 

 wild bird, so that we can almost see the scene for ourselves. The sketches 

 are full of what Dr. Spencer Trotter has called the ornithological back- 

 ground. As an example we quote from the account of the Blood Pheasant 

 which our author sought on the 'arctic ' meadows of the high Himalayas: 

 "Without warning, the sun dropped behind a distant ridge. It was as if 

 someone had turned out some enormous lamp. Luminous clouds appeared 

 in the air that before had been so clear, and the first whisper of the cold 

 night wind echoed softly in the crags. The insects vanished, and one by 

 one the icicles and rivulets were silenced at the touch of the coming twilight. 

 From a high ravine came the plaintive call of a white-capped redstart, 

 and a gray fox barked from somewhere far off. Then in the rich after- 

 glow, reflected from the mountains of snow, seven birds appeared over the 

 crest of the ridge. They came slowly, one after another, and I knew them 

 at once for the Blood Partridges I had come so far to find. Through my 

 glasses every feather was distinct, every movement clear, as the birds 

 straggled down the slope. Now and then several of them would loiter 

 and pick at the abundant red berries. ... I watched them eagerly, cau- 



