258 BEACH GRASS 



likely to excite and win the female. If this were 

 not the case the display would fall into innocuous 

 desuetude. Mr. William Brewster once told 

 me the interesting case of a pair of summer 

 tanagers in the south where he shot the male. 

 In a short time the female appeared with another 

 male. This one also he shot and so on until he 

 had obtained three or four of this female's 

 spouses. On careful examination of plumage it 

 was seen that the most brilliant plumage was 

 possessed by number one and that the brilliancy 

 decreased successively in the others. 



The fact that the brilliant plumage is assumed 

 in many birds for the nuptial season only, seems 

 to bear out the im.portance of display for court- 

 ship. The ducks go into the eclipse plumage 

 immediately after the courtship season. The 

 brilliantly marked male wood duck and the eider 

 alike assume the modest and quiet dress of the 

 female. This is true of many other birds. The 

 bobolink and the scarlet tanager, the goldfinch 

 and the myrtle warbler doff their striking dress 

 in the fall and appear in the modest apparel of the 

 female and immature. 



