Habits and Instincts of the Pairing Season. 217 



the mating impulse and the emotional states which 

 accompany sexual union. May we not, therefore, fairly 

 suppose that adornment is of suggestive value, and itself 

 tends to call forth the sexual emotions? And, if so, 

 may we not further suppose that deficiency of such 

 adornment would evoke less strongly the sexual impulse, 

 and would, therefore, place the male in which such 

 ornament was lacking at a disadvantage in securing a 

 mate? 



Let us grant that the song of birds is primarily the 

 outcome of exuberant activity, and also that it is probably 

 a means of recognition. The recognition is presumably 

 not only specific, but individual, for the bird probably not 

 only recognizes the song as that of one of her own species, 

 but recognizes the individual notes of her own mate. If, 

 then, song is an expression of emotional condition, and if 

 it calls forth an answering emotion in the hen, it would 

 seem to be, to say the least of it, not improbable that the 

 bird which in this way excites the most emotion is more 

 likely to be accepted as a mate than others which excite 

 less emotion and call forth in a less degree the sexual 

 instinct. 



The question has been unduly complicated and placed 

 in a false light through the introduction of the unnecessary 

 supposition that the hen bird must possess a standard 

 or ideal of aesthetic value, and that she selects that 

 singer which comes nearest to her conception of what 

 a songster should be. One might as well suppose that 

 a chick selected those worms which most nearly approached 

 the ideal of succulence that it had conceived. The chick 

 selects the worm that excites the strongest impulse to 

 pick it up and eat it. So, too, the hen selects that mate 

 which by his song or otherwise excites in greatest degree 

 the mating impulse ; and there is no more need to suppose 



