V °^f~\ Recent Literature. 1 99 



orous, have not the best instincts for the proper construction aud conceal- 

 ment of the nest, and for the care and protection of the young, they are 

 certainly not the fittest, and will not survive, or be the parents of survi- 

 vors. If, on the other hand, there is generally this correlation — if, as 

 has been here argued, ornament is the natural product and direct outcome 

 of superabundant health and vigour, then no other mode of selection is 

 needed to account for the presence of such ornament. The action of 

 natural selection does not indeed disprove the existence of female selection 

 of ornament as ornament, but it renders it entirely ineffective; and as the 

 direct evidence for any such female selection is almost nil, while the 

 objections to it are certainly weighty, there can be no longer any reason 

 for upholding a theory which was provisionally useful in calling attention 

 to a most curious and suggestive body of facts, but which is now no longer 

 tenable."' 



Mr. Beddard adds: "In short, we find that the secondary sexual char- 

 acters of animals are dependent upon the germ glands themselves ; and 

 that the sexual diversity of animals is also associated with differences of 

 disposition and habit. There is a fundamental difference between males 

 and females, based upon the actual difference of sex, which generally 

 finds an expression in outward unlikeness. These superficial differences 

 may also be partly due to the different mode of life led by the two sexes. 

 We meet with them iri animals which cannot be moved by choice or 

 aesthetic preference ; but it is also true that they are most highly devel- 

 oped in the higher animals, where such choice is at least conceivable; the 

 mammal, however, forms a very important exception to this statement" 

 (p. 282). 



A fine vein of irony occasionally appears in Mr. Beddard's comments 

 upon alleged cases of mimicry, and especially of alleged instances of 

 sexual selection, as in respect to the mating and 'love dances' of spiders. 

 But on the whole his criticisms are suggestive rather than aggressive. 



We have long been of the opinion that most of the cases of supposed 

 'warning colors,' of mimicry, and sexual selection were to be much more 

 satisfactorily accounted for on other grounds than by the special theories 

 that have of late proved so popular with superficial writers, and apparently 

 so fascinating to the still less discerning public, and we are glad to 

 welcome so healthy an antidote to this mild phase of scientific lunacy as 

 Mr. Beddard's book on 'Animal Coloration.' — J. A. A. 



Our Hawks and Owls in their Relation to Agriculture. — 'Bulletin No. 

 3' of the Ornithological Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 2 



1 Wallace, Darwinism, p. 295. 



2 The Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Relation to Agriculture. Pre- 

 pared under the Direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Ornithologist, by A. K. Fisher 

 M.D., Assistant Ornithologist. Published by Authority of the Secretary of Agriculture. 

 Washington : Government Printing Office, 1893. — 8vo, pp. 210, with 26 colored plates 

 = U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, Bul- 



etin No. 3. 



