56 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



This colour and this burnish, then, on the feather of 

 the chaffinch are heightened after the birth of the new 

 feather that is, after the moult. That they are in- 

 separable from the nesting season is not to be doubted, 

 but it is remarkable that they are at their height 

 sometimes not at the time of the mating or pairing 

 season, but weeks, even months, after it. Most of the 

 chaffinches pair in February or March : if the one aim 

 and end of colour and burnish beauty in the male is 

 to win the female, why is not this beauty at its best 

 then? Why does Nature keep for May what was 

 meant for March ? Here in the breast of the chaffinch 

 in May is one out of many similar things in Nature to 

 make us think that there is beauty in the world, beauty 

 in various provinces of life, over and above that large 

 amount of it that has been expressly fashioned for 

 utility. 



As the all-for-utility theory breaks down, I think, 

 in the case of so much beauty of colour and pattern 

 and glow in wild life bird, flower, and insect so it 

 breaks down in these singing performances. Utility 

 is a master key to very much a key always bright 

 from constant use, made of iron that never rusts. Yet 

 there are locks it cannot turn. There are chambers 

 with doors closed and sealed against it. It cannot 

 show us everything about a bird's song or a butterfly's 

 colours ; it cannot tell us why the world began. 



A thrush set me thinking that the mere utility 

 theory about all bird songs must be a mistake. Plea- 



