SEXUAL SELECTION 641 



Buffer a japanned peacock to touch them. On his being 

 let out in the autumn, the oldest of the hens instantly 

 courted him, and was saccessful in her courtship. The 

 next year he was shut up in a stable, and then thex hens 

 all courted his rival."" This rival was a japanned or 

 black-winged peacock, to our eyes a more beautiful bird 

 than the common kind. 



Lichtenstein, who was a good observer and had excel- 

 lent opportunities of observation ' at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, assured Eudolphi that the female widow -bird {Chera 

 progne) disowns the male when robbed of the long tail feath- 

 ers with which he is ornamented during the breeding season. 

 I presume that this observation must have been made on 

 birds under confinement." Here is an analogous case: Dr. 

 Jaeger,"^ director of the Zoological Gardens, of Vienna, 

 states that a male silver-pheasant, who had been trium- 

 phant over all other males and was the accepted lover of 

 the females, had his ornamental plumage spoiled. He was 

 then immediately superseded by a rival, who got the upper 

 hand and afterward held the flock. 



It is a remarkable fact, as showing how important color 

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

 collector and observer of birds for many years in the North- 

 ern U nited States, has never in his large experience seen an 

 albino paired with another bird; yet he has had oppbrtuni- 

 ties of observing many albinos belonging to several species.'* 

 It can hardly be maintained that albinos in a state of nature 

 are incapable of breeding, as they can be raised with the 

 greatest facility under confinement. It appears, therefore, 

 that we must attribute the fact that they do not pair, to 

 their rejection by their normally colored comrades. 



2« "Proo. Zool. Soc," 1835, p. 54. The japanned pea^ck is considered 

 by Mr. Selater as a distinct species, and has been named Paao nigripennis; 

 but the evidence seems to me to show that it ia only a variety. 



" Budolphi, "Beytrage zur Anthropologic, " 1812, s. 184. 



*8 "Die Darwin'sche Theorie, und Ihre Stellung zu Moral und Religion," 

 1869, 8. 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. 



