84 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



and frequented places alike. The best scenes of 

 autumn in England cannot be thought of without a 

 redbreast. 



I feel sure the autumn song of the redbreast has 

 nothing to do with the evolution motive of music. 

 The evolution motive put baldly amounts to this : 

 brave song, with gay colour, is the means by which 

 the male birds attract the notice of the female birds, 

 and are chosen as mates ; the bravest singers and the 

 gayest males are preferred by the female over her 

 other less accomplished suitors ; and hence there has 

 been, from the vague beginning of birds, and still is 

 in force, a habit which is ever choosing the most 

 accomplished, spirited, and fine birds, and, doing so, is 

 striking out the less accomplished. This is the sur- 

 vival of the most accomplished, the survival of the 

 efficient. The most efficient being selected as mates, 

 there is, through heredity, a constant tendency for the 

 brave songs and the colours and spirit to pass down 

 from generation to generation; and the race cannot 

 degenerate whilst this law is in force. 



I believe in evolution, and feel that preference of 

 the most accomplished, working through heredity, is 

 the main way in which birds, beasts, insects, plants 

 have reached their present state. A great French 

 observer, M. Fabre, does not, I believe, trust in this 

 history of living creatures, though how he can doubt 

 that, say, pearl skipper and larger skipper butter- 

 flies, or that ringdove and stockdove, come from a 



