476 COUETSHIP AND MAEEIAGE. 



2. Display to the best effect of graces of person includ- 

 ing the colour of plumage. 



In birds, as in man, it would appear to be the female that 

 most frequently and decidedly manifests a partiality for finery 

 and fashion, for self-decoration (Houzeau), for the orna- 

 mentation of love-bowers, or other places of rendezvous, or 

 of nests (Gould). Even among humble bees there are ar- 

 tists with a taste for the ornamental (Figuier). Sir John 

 Lubbock refers to the obvious ' evidences that the beauty of 

 flowers is useful in consequence of its attracting insects.' 



Certain birds cultivate beauty of person, just as man, or 

 more commonly woman, does ; and some mammals do the 

 same polishing their fur, for instance, as birds preen their 

 feathers. Moreover, taste for the beautiful is improved by 

 being exercised or cultivated in birds as in man. 



Various birds and other animals not only a/ppreciate 

 beauty in each other, but they are conscious of the existence 

 and of the value of their own personal beauty. They take a 

 pride in it, displaying this pride in a variety of ways ; and so 

 far as concerns courtship and marriage, they make use of it 

 as a means of charming or attracting the opposite sex. Their 

 pride is obviously associated with, if it do not arise, from, 

 their love of admiration and their capacity of inspiring admi- 

 ration. Nor is it at all necessary that this admiration should 

 proceed from other individuals of the species to which an 

 animal belongs. The peacock, according to Wood, ' seems 

 to be just as proud of the admiration bestowed by human 

 beings as of that offered by his own kind. 5 



The turkey, in his nuptial plumage, ' surveys himself 

 with ludicrous complacency.' The whidah (or widow) bird 

 is also ' wonderfully proud of his beautiful tail ' (Wood) . 

 The bird of paradise makes his morning toilet very care- 

 fully, cleansing his plumage, and ( seeming proud of its 

 heavenly beauty, and in raptures of delight with its own 

 most enchanting self.' One of them inspected the state of 

 its plumage above and below, ( as proud as a lady in her full 

 ball dress .... looking archly at the spectators, as if ready 

 to receive all the admiration that it considers its elegant 

 form and display of plumage demand' (Bennett). Here, 



