78 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



colored about alike. But Madam English Sparrow 

 was apparently eye-minded rather than ear-minded. 

 Whatever pleasant voice a suitor might have seems 

 to have been to her without attraction, and there was 

 nothing to encourage him in developing it, nor was 

 she likely to mate with him for it and transmit it to 

 her male children. On the other hand, let a suitor 

 appear in whom a more brilliant coloring proclaimed 

 his superior vigor, and this seems to catch her eye at 

 once. The less accomplished rival in the tournament 

 of love seems to have been already forgotten. To 

 their children these successful characteristics were 

 naturally handed on and led to equal success on their 

 part. If any of these children possessed this badge 

 of honor in a more than ordinary degree, he was the 

 more likely to win a mate and thus again the oppor- 

 tunity of passing on to his offspring his own distinct 

 advantage. Generation by generation the males have 

 become more beautiful and the females more discrimi- 

 nating. That the bird is either instinctively or actu- 

 ally conscious of this advantage would appear from 

 the constant fluffing of his feathers and spreading of 

 his highly colored wings with which he evinces his 

 admiration for his ladylove. Even the most hardened 

 dweller in the city can scarcely have failed to see the 

 sparrow spread his wings, fluff his feathers, and sink 

 close to the ground, twirling and gyrating about the 



