286 DARWINISM chap. 



the females prefer certain males on account of the beauty of 

 their plumage." Mr. Hewitt was convinced " that the female 

 almost invariably prefers the most vigorous, defiant, and 

 mettlesome male;" and Mr. Tegetmeier, "that a gamecock, 

 though disfigured by being dubbed, and with his hackles 

 trimmed, would be accepted as readily as a male retaining all 

 his natural ornaments." 1 Evidence is adduced that a female 

 pigeon will sometimes take an antipathy to a particular male 

 without any assignable cause ; or, in other cases, will take a 

 strong fancy to some one bird, and will desert her own mate 

 for him ; but it is not stated that superiority or inferiority 

 of plumage has anything to do with these fancies. Two 

 instances are indeed given, of male birds being rejected, which 

 had lost their ornamental plumage; but in both cases (a 

 widow- finch and a silver pheasant) the long tail-plumes are 

 the indication of sexual maturity. Such cases do not support 

 the idea that males with the tail-feathers a trifle longer, or 

 the colours a trifle brighter, are generally preferred, and 

 that those which are only a little inferior are as generally 

 rejected, — and this is what is absolutely needed to establish 

 the theory of the development of these plumes by means of 

 the choice of the female. 



It will be seen, that female birds have unaccountable likes 

 and dislikes in the matter of their partners, just as we have 

 ourselves, and this may afford us an illustration. A young 

 man, when courting, brushes or curls his hair, and has his 

 moustache, beard, or whiskers in perfect order, and no doubt 

 his sweetheart admires them ; but this does not prove that 

 she marries him on account of these ornaments, still less that 

 hair, beard, whiskers, and moustache were developed by the 

 continued preferences of the female sex. So, a girl likes to see 

 her lover well and fashionably dressed, and he always dresses 

 as well as he can when he visits her ; but we cannot conclude 

 from this that the whole series of male costumes, from the 

 brilliantly coloured, puffed, and slashed doublet and hose of 

 the Elizabethan period, through the gorgeous coats, long 

 waistcoats, and pigtails of the early Georgian era, down to 

 the funereal dress-suit of the present day, are the direct result 

 of female preference. In like manner, female birds may be 

 1 Descent of Man, pp. 417, 418, 420. 



