Chap. XXI.] AND CONCLUDING REMARKS. 383 



minds of the lower animals. It cannot be supposed that 

 male Birds of Paradise or Peacocks, for instance, should 

 take so much pains in erecting, spreading, and vibrating 

 their beautiful plumes before the females for no purpose. 

 We should remember the fact given on excellent authority 

 in a former chapter, namely, that several peahens, when 

 debarred from an admired male, remained widows during 

 a whole season rather than pair with another bird. 



Nevertheless, I know of no fact in natural history more 

 wonderful than that the female Argus pheasant should be 

 able to appreciate the exquisite shading of the ball-and- 

 socket ornaments and the elegant patterns on the wing- 

 feathers of the male. He who thinks that the male was 

 created as he now exists must admit that the great plumes, 

 which prevent the wings from being used for flight, and 

 which, as well as the primary feathers, are displayed in a 

 manner quite peculiar to this one species during the act 

 of courtship, and at no other time, were given to him as 

 an ornament. If so, he must likewise admit that the fe- 

 male was created and endowed with the capacity of ap- 

 preciating such ornaments. I difier only in the convic- 

 tion that the male Argus pheasant acquired his beauty 

 gradually, through the females having preferred during 

 many generations the more highly-ornamented males ; the 

 aesthetic capacity of the females having been advanced 

 through exercise or habit in the same manner as our own 

 taste is gradually improved. In the male, through the 

 fortunate chance of a few feathers not having been modi- 

 fied, we can distinctly see how simple spots with a little 

 fulvous shading on one side might have been developed 

 by small and graduated steps into the wonderful ball-and- 

 socket ornaments ; and it is probable that they were actu- 

 ally thus developed. 



Every one who admits the principle of evolution, and 

 yet feels great difficulty in admitting that female mam- 



