462 DIRECTIVE FACTORS IN EVOLUTION: 



the female does not choose the ' best ' out of a bunch of 

 suitors, but rather remains unresponsive to the solicitations 

 of males who do not raise her emotional interest to the 

 requisite pitch, that is quite enough for the purposes of 

 the theory; and it is in agreement with Darwin's own re- 

 mark about the female bird : " it is not probable that 

 she consciously deliberates: but she is most excited or 

 attracted by the most beautiful, or melodious, or gallant 

 males '\ 



A third objection is more serious. It is one thing to 

 admit the reality of a somewhat vague preferential mating, 

 it is quite another thing to credit the female animal with 

 a capacity for appreciating slight differences in decorative- 

 ness or musical talent or lithesomeness. Wallace's statement 

 of this objection is well known. Referring to Darwin's 

 four chapters in The Descent of Man, he says : '' Any one 

 who reads these most interesting chapters will admit that 

 the fact of display is demonstrated; and it may also be 

 admitted, as highly probable, that the female is pleased 

 or excited by the display. But it by no means follows that 

 slight differences in the shape, pattern, or colours of the 

 ornamental plumes are what lead a female to give the pref- 

 erence to one male over another; still less that all the 

 females of a species, or the great majority of them, over a 

 wide area of country, and for many successive generations, 

 prefer exactly the same modification of the colour or orna- 

 ment {Darwinism, 1899, p. 285). 



But the edge has been taken off this objection by Lloyd 

 Morgan and others, who point out the gratuitousness of 

 crediting the hen bird with a standard of taste or capacity 

 for aesthetic valuation. ^' The chick selects the worm that 

 excites the strongest impulse to pick it up and eat it. So, 



