254 Form and Color in Nature. 



the love dances and love songs of the blackcock are called 

 in Germany. The bird utters almost continuously the 

 strangest noises ; he holds his tail up and spreads it out like 

 a fan, he lifts up his head and neck with all the feathers 

 erect, and stretches his wings from the body. Then he takes 

 a few jumps in different directions, sometimes in a circle, 

 and presses the under part of his beak so hard against the 

 ground that the chin feathers are rubbed off. During these 

 movements he beats his wings and turns round and round. 

 The more ardent he grows the more lively he becomes, 

 until at last the bird appears like a frantic creature." 



The modes of courtship among spiders as described by 

 Prof. Peckham are very varied and very curious. The 

 males engage in fantastic dances and posturings, exhibiting 

 their peculiarities of coloring or form in the most elaborate 

 ways, and sometimes many hours or even days are consumed 

 in these performances. The females seem attentive ob- 

 servers of these antics, and it is hardly possible to under- 

 stand them excepting as efforts to excite a personal interest 

 through some impression upon the sense of sight, which 

 would appear to involve an appreciation in some sort of 

 color and form. These efforts are usually successful, but 

 not always. In many species the female is much larger 

 and more powerful than the male, and sometimes while he 

 is absorbed in his efforts to please she will adroitly pounce 

 upon him, and then gently dismember and devour him. I 

 am well aware that "evil communications corrupt good 

 manners," and I mention this habit with hesitation. I 

 beg to assure the young ladies before me that I do not 

 indorse it, and should greatly regret that any word of 

 mine incautiously spoken should lead to its general adop- 

 tion. 



It is perhaps not too much to say that there is strong 

 probability in the theory that great modifications, both in 

 color and in form, may have resulted from sexual selection 

 following or accompanying a decided development in the 

 color sense. But of perhaps equal importance (Wallace 

 says of controlling importance) are mimicry and protective 

 resemblance. 



Of course these are only phases of ordinary natural selec- 

 tion. They are found widely prevalent throughout ani- 

 mated nature, and present some of the most marvelous in- 

 stances of elaborate adaptation which are to be found. 



It may perhaps be fairly assumed that butterflies and 



