But we need not travel so far as Brazil to find examples of 
displays of this kind. Among the birds of our own Islands we 
can find many close parallels. The chaffinch and the gold- 
finch, when seeking to arouse the sympathy of their mates, 
make much play with their wings, not only in short “ nuptial 
flights,” designed, apparently, to display the conspicuous 
and brilliant colouring of the plumage as a whole, but when 
perched on some convenient spray. At such times the wing 
is more or less completely spread out, as if to reveal, to the 
fullest possible advantage, the bright bars and splashes of 
colour which this extension alone can bring into being. 
Since these gaily coloured vestments seemed always to 
be associated with striking, stilted attitudes, sometimes 
bordering on the grotesque, and always to be paraded in the 
presence of the female, Darwin drew the inference that they 
were the outcome of female choice persistently exercised 
during long generations. That is to say, he held that, far 
back in the history of the race, these performers were soberly 
clad, as their mates commonly are. Then certain of the 
males of these now resplendent species began to develop 
patches of colour, small at first, but gradually increasing, 
generation by generation, in area and intensity. This pro- 
gressive splendour, he believed, was due to the “‘ selective ” 
action of the females, which, from the very first, chose from 
among their suitors those who stood out among their fellows 
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