XI COLOUR AND SONG 311 
ing antics. Those who were selected left descendants 
behind, and thus grand plumage and voice became 
more and more developed. He found support for 
his view in the habits of those species in which the 
hen is more brightly coloured and larger than the cock- 
bird. With them it is the hen-birds who fight among 
one another ; the males sit upon the eggs and care for 
the young. Among these birds is the Indian Turnix 
Taigoor, the females of which are kept, like Gamecocks, 
by the natives for fighting. The cock-birds, it is said, 
undertake the whole duties of incubation and nursing, 
’ the hens absenting themselves and collecting in flocks 
as soon as they have laid. The Painted Snipe, 
another Indian bird, is an instance of the same thing. 
Ostriches and their allies have similar habits. The 
cock-birds are responsible for incubation and the 
care of the young. But the female is, at any rate not 
in all the allied families, the statelier bird. The male 
Cassowary is larger and more brightly coloured about 
the head than his partner, and the cock Ostrich is 
larger than the hen-bird whose eggs he hatches. 
Darwin saw in the Indian Turnix and Painted 
Snipe a confirmation of his theory. The brilliant 
colours were due to selection. But here it was the 
brilliant hen-bird that was selected by the male. One 
of his strongest arguments was the fact that the 
splendid plumes were often a serious inconvenience 
and even a danger to the bird which carried them. 
Instead of natural selection lopping off these cum- 
bersome appendages, female taste stepped in and 
preserved what, according to the great law of the 
survival of the fittest, ought to have passed out of 
