BIRDS 



89 



ornament in the sense of giving the preference to the 

 males that came nearest to her ideal ? As a matter 

 of fact we should, on this theory, have to suppose that 

 the female felt from the first — consciously or uncon- 

 sciously — an impulse to a certain end. This end was 

 the male ornamentation in its full development, and 

 it would be at length attained by the steady preference 

 of males that come nearest to the ideal. This 

 explanation seems arbitrary and unscientific, because 

 neither experience nor science tells us anything of this 

 mysterious working for a fixed aim ; and we shall see 

 in the eleventh chapter that it must be rejected 

 altogether. 



We must seek another explanation of the dance and 

 song and colouring. Let us deal first with the 

 dance. 



Is the charming of the black-cock really a means of 

 breaking down the coyness of the female? If it were, 

 we should have to assume that the cock must convince 

 itself during or after the dance that its art has been 

 effective ; and above all, we should have to suppose that 

 the hen is brought by the dance to look on him with 

 a sort of enchantment. As a matter of fact, we see 

 nothing of the kind. The females seem to be quite 

 indifferent ; in fact, in this particular case of the black- 

 cock, they are not very near to the male, and he has 

 to pursue them for some distance after the dance. 

 Then there is the peacock, whose tail is so much 

 admired by human beings ; his females seem to be 

 quite unmoved by it, and go on picking up their food 

 trivially, however fine he may look. Has anyone ever 



