GAY PLUMES AND DULL 



males. However, in the matter of health the females 

 of all species seem on a par with the males, though 

 in many cases the males are the larger and the 

 more powerful. But among our familiar birds, 

 when the two sexes differ in color, the brighter- 

 plumaged male, with rare exceptions, is no larger 

 or more vigorous than the female. 



The principle to which I have referred seems to 

 me adequate to account for these gay plumes and 

 fantastic forms — the male sexual principle, the 

 positive, aggressive instinct of reproduction, always 

 so much more active in the male than in the female; 

 an instinct or passion that banishes fear, prudence, 

 cunning, that makes the timid bold, the sluggish 

 active, that runs to all sorts of excesses, that sharpens 

 the senses, that quickens the pulse, that holds in 

 abeyance hunger and even the instinct of self- 

 preservation, that arms for battle and sounds forth 

 the call, and sows contention and strife everywhere; 

 the principle that gives the beard to the man, the 

 mane to the lion, the antlers to the stag, the tusks 

 to the elephant, and — why not? — the gorgeous 

 plumes and bright colors to the male birds of so 

 many species. The one thing that Nature seems to 

 have most at heart is reproduction; she will sac- 

 rifice almost everything else to this — the species 

 must be perpetuated at all hazards, and she has, as 

 a rule, laid the emphasis in this matter upon the 

 male. The male in the human species is positive, 

 93 



