260 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



later — and this is always the ease. Thus the first arrival was 

 some ten minutes after the usual time, and everything else, this 

 morning, both the actions and deportment of the birds, and the 

 diminished powers of their vocal performances, showed a waning 

 energy. But one hen came to stay ; another may have flown in, 

 but, if so, soon went again, without being courted. One or two 

 other arrivals, that produced the springing and crying, though 

 not in so high a degree, were not hens, but cocks. The one hen 

 that stayed was courted in the usual manner, one would say 

 successfully, except that the numerous interferences, at the end, 

 seemed also to be successful. So uniformly is this the case that 

 it really seems surprising that fertile eggs should be laid by the 

 females of this species at all. 



The above was the last observation which I had the oppor- 

 tunity of making before leaving England. 



Having now made a faithful transcript of my notes, which, as 

 far as possible, were made on the spot, and shortly after the facts 

 referred to occurred,* I will endeavour to summarise the results. 

 Darwin was dependent for the facts upon which he based his 

 theory of sexual selection upon the observation of others. This, 

 though defective, in part, was correct, upon the whole, so that 

 his reasoning, which has never been shaken, rested upon a secure 

 basis. In regard to the Blackcock, he appears only to have been 

 told of the frantic part of the bird's behaviour, and assuming, 

 in accordance apparently with the opinion of his informants, 

 that this was addressed to the hen, made his deductions, accord- 

 ingly, as part of the general case. Substituting for this frenzy, 

 whatever may be its origin, the very different kind of display 

 which I have described, I claim actually to have seen what 

 Darwin believed must take place, in this and other instances of 

 bird courtship. He said that all this great care and trouble 

 could not be taken by the male bird for nothing, but that the 

 female must be susceptible to, and yield to it. I have given 



* The skeleton of the drama can generally be entered during some of 

 the entr'actes, and filled in on the fall of the curtain. A pencil may even 

 bring down an important fact or two flying, so to speak, and therein is 

 superior to any fountain or stylo. Ideas, too, one may keep pace with in the 

 rough, but their elaboration is for that most blissful of all hearths, the lonely 

 cottage-lodging one. 



