MALAY ARGUS PHEASANT 123 



or through some sense of which we know nothing. This may be some pre-sesthetic, or 

 ante-artistic sense, which, only in us, has risen to the level of our conscious eyes and 

 ears, that we may look, and listen, and know. 



It is well occasionally thus to theorize. At least it serves to break through the 

 barrier to progress, which the term " coy female " and its equivalents have raised. 

 I think we shall find that some such explanation is necessary. Darwin's ideas are those 

 which we as human beings would prefer to accept. He says: "The Argus Pheasant 

 does not possess brilliant colours, so that his success in love appears to depend on the 

 great size of his plumes, and on the elaboration of the most elegant patterns. Many will 

 declare that it is utterly incredible that a female bird should be able to appreciate fine 

 shading and exquisite patterns. It is undoubtedly a marvellous fact that she should 

 possess this almost human degree of taste. He who thinks that he can safely gauge the 

 discrimination and taste of the lower animals may deny that the female Argus Pheasant 

 can appreciate such refined beauty ; but he will then be compelled to admit that the 

 extraordinary attitudes assumed by the male during the act of courtship, by which the 

 wonderful beauty of his plumage is fully displayed, are purposeless ; and this is a 

 conclusion which I for one will never admit." I feel as strongly on this last point as did 

 Darwin, and the idea that all this delicate interrelation of two birds is mechanical 

 and the manifestation of automata, of organisms controlled by positive and negative 

 tropisms, is equally unthinkable. It is one of those cases where we should be brave 

 enough to say, " I do not know," and we should not give up the problem because it 

 appears to lead to the psychic or the metaphysical. 



In the display of the Argus Pheasant we have a most elaborate setting, stage and 

 properties, with an actor, who in turn is both company and orchestra, all unquestionably 

 for the benefit of an audience which assembles one at a time, and appears utterly and 

 altogether bored. Yet the plot is the plea of creation, and on the success of the act 

 depends the continual existence of the entire race. With such an acme of preparation 

 and effort on one side, and apparent utter indifference on the other, we may be pardoned 

 for groping about for some leaven of balance, some explanation of a situation wholly 

 inexplicable upon known grounds. The tremendous importance of the final ddnotmnent 

 demands that we give it more than a passing reference. 



It is so easy to understand the most elaborate and specialized apparatus for physical 

 attraction. Even the evanescent particles, immeasurably minute, which stream from 

 some tiny gland on the body of a female moth and float away for a half, even for a full 

 mile, are understandable. And our minds can readily grasp how, even at this great 

 distance, a waiting male may catch the scent and come through forests and over plains 

 up wind to his mate. The summons to the dancing-place is plain. The female is 

 attracted, as we have been, by the reiterated call, but we cannot as yet fathom how she 

 can be influenced and won by some unknown effect or quality of a display which to us 

 expresses in a high degree the fascination of beauty, of pleasing symmetry and of 

 harmonious colouring and pattern. Some day we may find the certain clue ; now we 

 can but picture in our minds the dense Malayan jungles sheltering scores of these 

 marvellous performers, going faithfully through their whole scene at the risk of their 

 lives, listening and hoping for the appearance of the hen, the winning of which means 

 the fulfilment of the destiny of the Argus Pheasant. 



