The Making of Species 



catcher ( Terpsiphone paradisi) drive away another 

 and then go and make up to a cock bird. Simi- 

 larly, I have seen two hen orioles behave in a 

 very unladylike manner to one another all 

 because they both had designs on the same cock. 

 He sat and looked on from a distance at the 



contest." 



Darwin quotes, on page 500 of The Descent 

 of Man, a case of a male exercising selection : 

 "It appears to be rare when the male refuses 

 any particular female, but Mr Wright of Gelders- 

 ley House, a great breeder of dogs, informs me 

 that he has known some instances : he cites the 

 case of one of his own deerhounds who would 

 not take any notice of a particular female mastiff, 

 so that another deerhound had to be employed." 



Similarly, Finn records, in the Country -Side 

 for August 29th, 1908, that the male Globose 

 Curassow ( Crax globicera) in the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, which bred with the female 

 Heck's Curassow (C. hecki), as related on p. 104, 

 selected the hen of this very distinctly coloured 

 form or species in preference to any of the 

 typical hens of his own kind. 



The cases on record of cocks being in a position 

 to select their mates are comparatively rare, while 

 instances of selection on the part of the hens are far 

 more numerous. 



Hence it would seem that the sex, which is in 

 a minority, and so has the opportunity of select- 



34 



