GOLDEN PHEASANT 9 



felt the warmth even through the thick denim. The cock fed quietly for a moment and 

 then ran over to the hen and, circling around in front, presented his full broadside of 

 glowing hues. I could even see his beak open before his cape shut it from view, 

 although he was too far away for the accompanying hiss to reach me. The clouds closed 

 down again and the warmth went out of the air like the heat from a snuffed candle, but 

 once more the cock pheasant turned and shot forth his ruff and displayed his opposite 

 battery of allurements. He then shook himself and went on feeding. The hen had 

 never for a moment ceased her prosaic search for food. This sudden and unseasonal 

 display of her mate awoke no apparent response in her breast. The quick reaction to 

 even a few minutes of warm sunlight was most interesting. 



Fortunately the display of the Golden Pheasant is something we can study at leisure 

 in our captive birds. There are few more beautiful sights than a pen of these gorgeous 

 pheasants dashing about, often leaping in their eagerness over one another's heads and 

 posturing in their statuesque manner before the hens. So thoroughly do they seem to 

 enjoy it all that one cannot fail to think how deep a disappointment it would be to them 

 were the hens to capitulate at once. But there is never any danger of this, and for many 

 days the sombre little mates are adamant, with apparently never a glance at the terrific 

 endeavours of the cocks to attract their attention. 



One would like to think of the hens as playing off one cock against another in 

 conscious mental comparison ; of appraising this ruff with that patch of gold ; this 

 crest of pure spun yellow glass with those stiffened plumes of crimson. To our eyes 

 such comparison is reasonable ; the beauty of colour, of agility, of grace of the cock 

 pheasants — all these appeal powerfully to our aesthetic sense. But long-continued 

 observation forbids such an interpretation. That the colours and the wonderful pin- 

 wheeling of the orange-and-black ruff about the glowing eye, the infinite patience 

 striving continually to bring all the colours and patterns of the body, of both sides at 

 once, constantly to the attention of the female— that all these are of paramount 

 importance in the courtship, we cannot doubt for a moment, but that their effect is similar 

 to the effect upon our minds is another matter. 



Stand close to a dozen Golden Pheasants thus courting, with the hot sun beating 

 down, and idly watch them for many minutes. The circling, dizzy movements and play 

 of blazing colours will soon have its effect, and one presently ceases to watch definite 

 birds, or definite actions, the whole scene resolving itself into a soothing kaleidoscopic 

 display, one's eyes and mind being content to register only the general polychrome 

 effect. One finds oneself day-dreaming, the eyes focusing on no particular object. It 

 seems to me that the most reasonable explanation of the wonderful performance is of a 

 mental effect upon the hens, not aesthetic, not directly critical or attentional, but a slow 

 indirect influence upon the nerves, the arousing of a soothing, pleasing emotion which 

 stimulates the wonderful sequence of instincts which will result in nest-making, egg- 

 laying, the weeks of patient brooding and the subsequent care of the young through day 

 and night, in fair weather and in storm. 



This explanation implies no deprecation of the importance of sexual selection. It is 

 that particular male which, either by vanquishing his rivals or by strength and persistency, 

 most frequently and effectively displays, which will win the hen, regardless of whether 

 the actual process be by aesthetic appreciation or by some subconscious, hypnotic-like 



VOL. IV c 



