GAY PLUMES AND DULL 



of the Argus pheasant. It was evidently a long, 

 slow process. Is it credible that the female ob- 

 served and appreciated each successive slight change 

 in the growth of these spots, selecting those males 

 in which the changes were most marked, and re- 

 jecting the others ? How could she be so influenced 

 by changes so slight and so gradual that only a 

 trained eye would be likely to take note of them ? 

 It is imputing to the female bird a degree of taste 

 and a power of discrimination that are found only 

 in mankind. Why, then, it may be asked, is the male 

 so active in showing off his finery before the female ? 

 Of course it is to move her, to excite her to the point 

 of mating with him. His gay plumes are the badge 

 of his masculinity, and it is to his masculinity that 

 her feminine nature responds. She is aroused when 

 he brings to bear upon her all the batteries of his 

 male sex. She is negative at the start, as he is pos- 

 itive. She must be warmed up, and it is his function 

 to do it. She does not select; she accepts, or rejects. 

 The male does the selecting. He offers himself, and 

 she refuses or agrees, but the initiative is with him 

 always. He would doubtless strut just the same 

 were there no hens about. He struts because he 

 has to, because strutting is the outward expression 

 of his feelings. The presence of the hen no doubt 

 aggravates the feeling, and her response is a reaction 

 to the stimuli he offers, just as his own struttings 

 are reactions to the internal stimuli that are at the 

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