CHAP. X.] SEXUAL SELECTION. 311 



other observations directly contradict any such hypothesis. 

 Thus Mr. Darwin himself says of fowls : 



&quot; I have received long letters on this subject from Messrs. Hewitt 

 and Tegetmeier, and almost an essay from the late Mr. Brent. It will 

 be admitted by every one that these gentlemen, so well known from 

 their published works, are careful and experienced observers. They 

 do not believe that the females prefer certain males on account of the 

 beauty of their plumage.&quot; &quot; Mr. Tegetmeier is convinced that a game 

 cock, though disfigured by being dubbed with his hackles trimmed, 

 would be accepted as readily as a male retaining all his natural orna 

 ments.&quot; As to pigeons, &quot; Mr. Tegetmeier, at my request, stained some 

 of his birds with magenta, but they were not much noticed by the 

 others.&quot; vol. ii. pp. 117, 118. 



But there are remarkable instances of sexual characters 

 which cannot be due to female selection or to selection at all. 

 Thus Mr. Darwin was shown by Mr. Bartlett that the inside 

 of the mouth of the hornbill, B. bicornis, &quot; is black in the 

 male and flesh-coloured in the female&quot; (vol. ii. p. 129). 

 Again, we learn that &quot; the females of Paradisea apoda and 

 P. papuana differ from each other more than do their re 

 spective males &quot; (vol. ii. p. 192). And again, &quot; The males of 

 two species of Oxynotus (shrikes), which represent each other 

 in the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, differ but little in 

 colour, whilst the females differ much.&quot; Moreover, Mr. 

 Darwin compares these with &quot; certain sub-breeds of the game 

 fowl, in which the females are very different, whilst the males 

 can hardly be distinguished&quot; differences which he allows 

 we cannot explain. And indeed the fact that sexual plumage 

 may arise without any sexual selection whatever, or indeed 

 selection of any kind, is abundantly demonstrated by the 

 case of the pigeons before noticed, and by the fact that in 

 fowls &quot; the two sexes of pencilled Hamburgs differ greatly 

 from each other, and from the two sexes of the aboriginal 

 Gallus lankiva &quot; (vol. ii. p. 158). 



Mr. Darwin bases his theory of sexual selection greatly on 

 the fact that the male birds display the beauty of their 

 plumage with elaborate parade and many curious and un 

 couth gestures. But this display is not exclusively used in 



