L ife- h is to ry of Sa Im on. 107 



animal kingdom signalize the nii|)tial season by a special 

 display oi" beauty ? For these and nutneruus other questions 

 there is as yet no sufficient answer. 



A great defect in many of the current theories is their 

 inability to explaiu the origin of the characters the modern 

 uses of which they ])ropound. If the Peahen's dinginess be 

 protective, and her lord and master's splendour sesthetic, how 

 did such a state of things tirst arise? Granted that there be 

 under present conditions ample justification for such sexual 

 diversity, is it credible that such a display had in its infancy 

 the same meaning as it now has in its perfection? Can we 

 really believe that a peacock with a slightly larger tail or 

 more brilliant feathers was, in the early history of his race, 

 preferable or in a better position than other less ornate fowl ? 

 "Why are such beauties absent in youth? Why do they 

 decay with age, and why does the old or diseased female 

 partially assume them ? The theory which will explain not 

 only the origin but the present use of such developments 

 must obviously be a broad one, based partially on physio- 

 logical, partly on ffisthetic or protective or other reasons. 



Of late years a few writers * have attempted to probe the 

 question from the physiological aspect, but the work of some 

 of them has to my mind been frequently marred by an 

 inability to take a sufficiently wide view of the question under 

 consideration, leading them often to refuse due weight to the 

 views of other thinkers. 



Realizing the want of some such broad law, I had the 

 good fortune to observe while in Kamchatka the spawning 

 of the Salmonidse of the genus Oncorhynchus. The pheno- 

 mena displayed by these fish are very remarkable and have 

 been more than once the subject of description and comment. 

 They became for me the stimulus to much thought and 

 deliberation on the subject of animal coloration. Unfortu- 

 nately my stay in Kamchatka was brief, and it was not until 

 after I had left the country that I realized what 1 believe 

 to be the real significance of what I had seen. 



In discussing the matter with friends my ideas were fortu- 

 nately met with commendalion, and, acting on the advice of 

 Professor Newton, 1 brought the matter to the notice of tiie 

 Cambridge Philosophical »Society. 



Britfly, what 1 had to say was as follows : — The spawning 

 of the various species of Oncorliynchus is accompanied by 

 striking changes of colour and shape, different in each species. 



* E.g., Wi^desworth, Newbigin, Uunningbam, and others. Bateson 

 has some most suggestive remarks \u his discussion of the subject in the 

 Introduction to his work 'Miiterials lor the Study of Nariation ' (1894j. 



