104 THE FINCHES 



having, upon various occasions, been actually seen x is as strongly 

 at variance with certain dogmas and presuppositions to which a value 

 still more decisive than that of evidence has, for long, been accorded. 

 The difficulty has always lain with the hen bird, who, by admiring, 

 as the theory said she did, something that only man could be held 

 sufficiently aesthetic to appreciate, interfered with his monopoly of 

 a certain high spiritual faculty, and thus gave a deep dig at his pride. 

 For the cock, there could be no doubt that he did thus exhibit himself 

 before the hen, and since vanity was a spiritual faculty which man was 

 willing to share with his inferiors, less difficulty was experienced in 

 admitting that he might, upon such occasions, feel something as we do 

 when we act in a similar fashion. The thing was winked at ; but when 

 it came to the hen's appreciating his beauty, to the extent, even, of 

 choosing him for it, here was a different matter. If so, then she 

 shared an aesthetic sense with man, who alone, it was held, was 

 privileged to admire, let us say, a male Argus-pheasant, though to no 

 one, except to a female Argus-pheasant, had proper facilities for doing 

 so been given. Still, clearly, the thing was impossible, and though 

 the facts before mentioned were not in dispute, a more reasonable 

 explanation of them was held to be that cock birds, all the world over, 

 were mistaken in their estimate of hen birds, 2 and so, misled by vanity, 

 went through a variety of most remarkable performances, all clearly 

 designed to further their wishes, but which did them no good whatever. 

 No matter what the cock did, or what he thought. If only the hen 

 were indifferent all would be well, and so, since the sole possession of 

 an aesthetic sense by man was not a claim to be lightly surrendered, 



1 I have myself witnessed it in the case of several species, including especially the ruff 

 and blackcock. See my papers, " Observations tending to throw light on the Theory of Sexual 

 Selection, etc.," in The Zoologist for June, August, and November 1906, and February, May, 

 and October 1907, and "An Observational Diary on the Nuptial Habits of the Blackcock in 

 Scandinavia and England " in the same for November 1909, January and February 1910, etc. 



* A delusion shared, as is now known, by male spiders, who dance before the female to her 

 most evident satisfaction, and, to demonstration, thus win her. See the famous paper by 

 Professor and Mrs. Peckham, as also remarks thereon by Professor Poulton, in The Colours 

 of Animals (International Scientific Series). The title and appeariography of said paper 

 will here be found. It should be read in full by all evidentially interested, but not more 

 so than my own papers referred to on p. 52. 



