194 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



at all equal to those of the males. A female 

 bird nesting in the open would be cut off if 

 it showed any tendency to reproduce the 

 brilliant colouring of its male relations. 



Now the blackcock occupies to some ex- 

 tent an intermediate position between these 

 two types of pheasant life, though it inclines 

 on the whole to that first described. It is a 

 polygamous bird, and it differs most con- 

 spicuously in plumage from its consort, the 

 grey-hen, as may be seen from the very 

 names by which they are each familiarly 

 known. Yet, though the blackcock is hand- 

 some enough and shows evident marks of 

 selective preference on the part of his ances- 

 tral hens, this preference has not exerted 

 itself largely in the direction of bright colour, 

 and that for two reasons. In the first place 

 the blackcock does not feed upon brilliant 

 foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard 

 seeds, and young shoots of heather, and it is 

 probable that an aesthetic taste for pure and 

 dazzling hues is almost confined to those 



