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 gaUy 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 



63 



