240



Mr. Frank Finn,



If, moreover, the display does not please the hen, it comes

in very handy for “ bluffing ” adversaries; only the other day I

watched with much interest a black and a white swan displaying

vigorously to each other, obviously wishing to fight, but each too

afraid of the other to come to blows. I have seen a Mandarin

successfully bluff the much larger Dusky Duck (Anas obscura)

by display, and another try on the same game with a Carolina ;

in this case, however, the Mandarin met his match, for the

American bluffed in his turn, and the Chinaman gave way.*


The same principle of bluff may tell with the hen, for hen

birds are rather apt to be too independent, and to fail to respect

a male whom they do not fear a little. In fact, the display as a

bluff would justify its existence quite as much as if used as an

attraction ; and if this is the real use of it, it is easier to under¬

stand why the attitudes of displaying birds are generally more

grotesque than beautiful—the displayer often looks as if he were

badly stuffed for the ornamentation of a lady’s hat or a fire-place 1

However, as I have said above, there is no reason to suppose that

birds have what we call refinement or good taste, so we should

be careful in imputing to them aesthetic motives like our own.


Personal preference they do show, but we ourselves cannot

always rationally account for our preferences, so we may expect

to wait a while before we can fathom those of birds.


Voice, however, appears more potent than colour, for

colour- varieties of the same species, and species with very

different colours but the same note, such as the Mallard and

its dull allies, and the Hooded and Carrion Crows (Corvus comix

and C. corone ) interbreed with perfect freedom when brought

together, by man in the first place and naturally in the second.


If also, we consider what happens with our domestic birds,

even when allowed to breed indiscriminately without selection

by us, we shall see that there is a strong latent tendency to

increase in conspicuousness in colour, and to the production of

structural decorations, in most species.


Thus, most of them display a tendency to produce white

or pied plumage ; the “ soft parts” often assume brighter colours,



* The Carolina's display is a very poor affair : he only slightly raises his tail and

flattens his crest, diminishing his decoration instead of enhancing it; this is a very rare

case, but I have noticed also that Bulbuls displaying flatten instead of raising’ their crests.



