PREFERENCE BY THE FEMALE. 413 



they must be shut up on account of the mischief which they 

 cause. 



Wild turkeys in the United States, according to Auduhon, 

 "sometimes pay their addresses to the domesticated females, 

 "and are generally received by them with great pleasure." So 

 that these females apparently prefer the wild to their own males.'' 



Here is a more curious case. Sir R. Heron during many years 

 kept an account of the habits of the peafowl, which he bred in 

 large numbers. He states that "the hens have frequently great 

 "preference to a particular peacock. They were all so fond of an 

 "old pied cock, that one year, when he was confined though still 

 "in view, they were constantly assembled close to the trellice- 

 "walls of the prison, and would not suffer a japanned peacock 

 "to touch them. On his being let out in the autumn, the oldest of 

 "the hens Instantly courted him, and was successful in her court- 

 "ship. The next year he was shut up in a stable, and then the 

 "hens all courted his rival."™ This rival was a japanned or blaok- 

 winged peacock, to our eyes a more beautiful bird than the com- 

 mon kind. 



Lichtenstein, who was a good observer and had excellent op- 

 portunities of observation at the Cape of Good Hope, assured 

 Rudolph! that the female widow-bird (Chera progne) disowns the 

 male, when robbed of the long tail-feathers with which he is orna- 

 mented during the b¥eeding-season. I presume that this observa- 

 tion must have been made on birds under confinement.^' Here is 

 an analogous case; Dr. Jaeger,^ director of the Zoological Gar- 

 dens, of Vienna, states that a male silver-pheasant, who had been 

 triumphant over all other males and was the accepted lover of the 

 females, had his ornamental plumage spoiled. He was then im- 

 mediately superseded by a rival, who got the upper hand and after- 

 wards led the flock. 



It Is a remarkable fact, as showing how important color is in 

 the courtship of birds, that Mr. Boardman, a well-known col- 

 lector and observer of birds for many years in the Northern 

 United States, has never in his large experience seen an albino 

 paired with another bird; yet he has had opportunities of ob- 

 serving many albinos belonging to several species.^ It can hardly 



™ 'Ornithological Biography,' vol. i. p. 13. See to the same effect. 

 Dr. Bryant, in 'Allen's Mammals and Birds of Florida,' p. 344. 



2' 'Proo. Zool. Soc' 1835, p. B4. The japanned peacock is considered 

 by Mr. Sclater as a distinct species, and has been named Pave nisri- 

 pennis; but the evidence seems to me to show that it is only a variety. 



" Rudolphi, 'Beytrage zur Anthropologie,' 1812, s. 184. 



s* 'Die Darwin' sche Theorie, und ihre Stellung zu Moral und Re- 

 ligion,' 1869, s. 59. 



'' This statement is given by Mr. A. Leith Adams, in his 'Field and 

 Forest Rambles,' 1873, p. 76, and accords with his own experience. 



