Male Attractiveness 
ing a mate, does exert a choice and prefer one 
particular individual; and that, for the reasons 
pointed out by Darwin, it is in most cases the 
female who is in the position of being able to 
pick and choose her mate. It is, as Darwin 
truly said, far more difficult to decide what 
qualities determine the choice of the female. 
He believed that it is ‘to a large extent the 
external attractions of the male, though no doubt 
his vigour, courage, and other mental qualities 
come into play.” 
Darwin argued that it is the love of hen birds 
for ‘external attractions” in cock birds that 
has brought into being all the wonderful plumes 
that characterise such birds as the peacock. 
‘“Many female progenitors of the peacock,” he 
writes, on page 661 of Zhe Descent of Man 
(ed. 1901), ‘during a long line of descent, have 
appreciated this superiority, for they have un- 
consciously, by the continued preference of the 
most beautiful males, rendered the peacock the 
most splendid of living birds.” 
This conclusion has been vigorously attacked. 
It is argued, with some show of reason, that it 
is absurd to credit birds with esthetic tastes 
equal, if not superior, to those of the most 
refined and civilised of human beings. 
Is it likely, it is asked, that a bird, which will 
nest in an old shoe cast off by a tramp, can 
appreciate beauty of plumage ? 
U 395 
