BLACKCOCK. 195 



creatures which, like butterflies, humming- 

 birds, and parrots, seek their livelihood 

 amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the 

 second place, red, yellow, or orange orna- 

 ments would render the blackcock too con 

 spicuous a mark for the hawk, the falcon, or 

 the weapons of man ; for we must remember 

 that only those blackcocks survive from year 

 to year and hand down their peculiarities to 

 descendants which succeed in evading the 

 talons of birds of prey or the small-shot of 

 sportsmen. Feeding as they do on the open, 

 they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by 

 the shade of trees. Thus any bird which 

 showed any marked tendency to develop 

 brighter or more conspicuous plumage \v r ould 

 almost infallibly fall a victim to one or other 

 of his many foes ; and however much his 

 beauty might possibly charm his mates (sup- 

 posing them for the moment to possess a taste 

 for colour), he would have no chance of 

 transmitting it to a future generation. Ac- 

 cordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is 



o 2 



