326



Dr. A. G. Butler,



the affections of a hen Red-crested Cardinal; and of a Passerine

Dove, which so tormented a hen Zebra-finch with his attentions

that I had to remove it to an aviary, where it immediately trans¬

ferred its affections to a hen Bronze-winged Pigeon, to which it

has remained constant to the present day ; lastly a cock Grenadier

Weaver has, for two years, paid constant court to a cock Senegal

Dove, evidently not discerning its sex.


But, whereas male birds are totally deficient in selective

sense and seem to care very little what mate they secure, so long

as they are not doomed to a celibate life, female birds undoubtedly

exercise choice and refuse to accept husbands which are un¬

pleasing to them. Nor is it only in birds that one may observe

the process of selection in relation to sex, for with the common

white Cabbage Butterfly (Ganoris rupee) I have seen a female

refuse four males in succession and at once accept the fifth ;

proving that the assumption that insects (let alone birds) are

not intelligent enough to have any choice in the selection of

mates is a fallacy. The disputes over hen Sparrows and the

choice by the hen of a favoured mate may be witnessed by any¬

one possessing a garden, every spring; nor is the chosen one

always the most brightly coloured, so that it may be that, in this

species, the most courageous suitor is selected.


In domesticated birds like the Canary, I believe it is

possible to pair up males and females as one pleases, and (with a

few exceptions), what man selects the birds accept; but with

species as occurring in nature this appears not to be the case.

Doubtless it is the rule, where no adverse influence intervenes

to check the tendenc}', for brothers and sisters to mate ; and I

have noticed, as probably others have done, that since the

enforcement of the Wild Birds Protection Acts there has been

a considerable increase in the number of wild pied and albino

birds, as a natural result of the uninterrupted inbreeding which

must have followed, where whole families have been preserved to

carry on the species. Such wholesale protection must eventually

interfere materially with the productiveness of our native birds ;

for it must be borne in mind that predatory birds have been

thinned out by game-preservers and poultry-farmers to such an

extent that their influence in breaking up families of youngsters



