COURTSHIP 263 
in specific and distinguishable ways at the breeding season, and 
in presence of their would-be mates, the question is, What, if 
any, is the biological value of such behaviour? What has 
fostered and guided it in the course of its evolution? From 
the case of the Argus pheasant, which is only a sample of the 
large class of cases in which the male has special adornments, 
we see that the behaviour has often direct relation to the 
display of such plumage, or, in some apes, of coloured surfaces, 
so that behaviour and ornamentation must be taken together. 
The essence of Darwin’s contention is, that the adornments 
and behaviour give rise to a situation through which the 
female is stimulated or excited to accept the male; that the 
male in which they are best developed vives rise to the most 
effective situation, produces most excitement, and therefore 
has the best chance of acceptance, being “ unconsciously pre- 
ferred ;” * and that he thus begets offspring which inherit his 
adornments and modes of behaviour, such inheritance being, 
however, confined to the males. Thus sexual selection takes 
effect through preferential mating, whereby certain hereditary 
traits are transmitted and become racial characteristics. And 
this is brought about through an appeal to consciousness, and 
seems to involve choice—generally that of the female. 
Now, as I have elsewhere urged,f the hypothesis of sexual 
selection has often been placed in a false light by the introduc- 
tion of the unnecessary supposition that the hen bird, for 
example, must possess a standard or ideal of zesthetic value, and 
that she selects that singer which comes nearest to her concep- 
tion of what a songster should be. Darwin occasionally ex- 
pressed himself unguardedly in the matter; he says, for 
example, that the female appreciates the display of the male, 
and places to her credit a taste for the beautiful.t But he also 
distinctly states that “it is not probable that she consciously 
deliberates ; she is most excited or attracted by the most 
beautiful, or melodious, or gallant males.” § This is all that is 
really necessary for the theory of sexual selection. The hen 
* « Descent of Man,” vol. ii., p. 56. ¢ “Habit and Instinct,” p. 217. 
t “Descent of Man,” vol. ii., p. 251. § Op. cit., p. 187. 
