XI COLOUR AND SONG 319 
desirable that he should fall a victim to a bird or beast 
of prey. He takes as proved, what I have said still 
requires proof, that the cock-birds largely outnumber 
the hen-birds. But even if this is not so there must 
in the polygamous species (which are chiefly in ques- 
tion, for in them the male is most the slave of his 
plumes) be an excess of male birds. Where this 
excess exists, the hen-bird, when she is sitting, will be 
liable to be disturbed by cock-birds which have not 
found a mate. Certainly, many game-preservers 
maintain that you get more young pheasants, if you 
keep down the numbers of the old cocks. Thus the 
gorgeous plumes and the desperate fights of the 
pairing season have for their object the reduction of 
the number of males. 
It may well be thought that there is something of 
an over-statement here. It might have been safer to 
formulate it thus, that since the males are largely in 
excess, Natural Selection ceases in their case to work. 
They run riot in plumage, because they are of little 
importance to the species, and it is only for the pre- 
servation of the species that Natural Selection cares. 
If a cock-bird’s loud song attracts his enemies and so 
causes his death, there are plenty more to take his place. 
In the same way, the drones of the beehive, of which 
there is a monstrous superfluity, are liable to be easily 
caught, and have no sting to defend themselves with. 
However great the death-rate among them, the life 
of the hive goes on and the species continues. Natural 
Selection does not kill them, but lets them die. 
Thou shalt not kill; but need’st not strive 
Officiously to keep alive. 
