' I am convinced that any student of the subject who will cast aside his books — 

 supposing that they have not already bred a habit in his mind of seeing only ' ' in accord- 

 ance with verbal statement " — and go directly to nature, to note the actions of animals 

 for himself — actions which, in many cases, appear to lose all significance when set down in 

 writing — the result of such independent investigation will be a conviction that conscious 

 sexual selection on the part of the female is not the cause of music and dancing perform- 

 ances in birds, nor of the brighter colours and ornaments that distinguish the male.' 

 The Naturalist in La Plata, by W. H. Hudson, p. 287. 



