78 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
colored about alike. But Madam English Sparrow 
was apparently eye-minded rather than ear-minded. 
Whatever pleasant voice a suitor might have seems 
to have been to her without attraction, and there was 
nothing to encourage him in developing it, nor was 
she likely to mate with him for it and transmit it to 
her male children. On the other hand, let a suitor 
appear in whom a more brilliant coloring proclaimed 
his superior vigor, and this seems to catch her eye at 
once. The less accomplished rival in the tournament 
of love seems to have been already forgotten. To 
their children these successful characteristics were 
naturally handed on and led to equal success on their 
part. If any of these children possessed this badge 
of honor in a more than ordinary degree, he was the 
more likely to win a mate and thus again the oppor- 
tunity of passing on to his offspring his own distinct 
advantage. Generation by generation the males have 
become more beautiful and the females more discrimi- 
nating. That the bird is either instinctively or actu- 
ally conscious of this advantage would appear from 
the constant fluffing of his feathers and spreading of 
his highly colored wings with which he evinces his 
admiration for his ladylove. Even the most hardened 
dweller in the city can scarcely have failed to see the 
sparrow spread his wings, fluff his feathers, and sink 
close to the ground, twirling and gyrating about the 
