SEXUAL SELECTION- 543 



convinced that tlie pheasant invariably prefers the older 

 birds. He does not appear to be in the least influenced 

 by their color, but "is most capricious in his attach- 

 ments;" °' from some inexplicable cause he shows the 

 most determined aversion to certain hens, which no care on 

 the part of the breeder can overcome. Mr. Hewitt informs 

 me that some hens are quite unattractive even to the males 

 of their own species, so that they may be kept with several 

 cocks during a whole season, and not one egg out of forty 

 or fifty will prove fertile. On the other hand, with the 

 Long-tailed duck {JSarelda glacialis), "it has been re- 

 marked," says M. Ekstrdm, "that certain females are 

 much more courted than the rest. Frequently, indeed, 

 one sees an individual surrounded by six or eight amo- 

 rous males." Whether this statement is credible I know 

 not; but the native sportsmen shoot these females in or- 

 der to stufE them as decoys.'" 



"With, respect to female birds feeling a preference for 

 particular males, we must bear in mind that we can judge 

 of choice being exerted only by analogy. If an inhabitant 

 of another planet were to behold a number of young rustics 

 at a fair courting a pretty girl, and quarrelling about her 

 like birds at one of their places of assemblage, he would, 

 by the eagerness of the wooers to please her and to display 

 their finery, infer that she had the power of choice. Now, 

 with birds, the evidence stands thus: they have acute pow- 

 ers of observation, and they seem to have some taste for the 

 beautiful both in color and sound. It is certain that the fe- 

 males occasionally exhibit, from unknown causes, the strong- 

 est antipathies and preferences for particular males. "When 

 thti sexes differ in color or in other ornaments, the males, 

 with rare exceptions, are the more decorated, either perma- 

 nently or temporarily, during the breeding season. They 

 gedulously display their various ornaments, exert their 



'• Mr. Hewitc, quoted in "Tegetmeier's Poultry Book," 1866, p. 1«5. 

 " Quoted in Lloyd's "Game Birds of Sweden," p. 345. 



