SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 169 



entirely satisfactory substitute. Again, the Beeves courted each 

 other, and one, in particular, followed another about in a very 

 persistent manner, and with unmistakable actions. Thus, then, 

 it is perfectly clear that there is no want of sexual appetite on 

 the part of the female Buff, and her frequent and firm refusal of 

 a number of males is all the more significant. 



The shortness of the intervals between the successive pairings 

 of the brown Buff — which now seemed to be always, or nearly 

 always, successfully accomplished — struck me as remarkable, 

 and the fact that I could only make this observation in his case 

 shows how favoured — i. e. selected — he was by the Beeves. 



But it may be asked, " Is it not the superior fighting powers 

 of particular Buffs which procure them the apparent choice of 

 the female ? Are not other Buffs driven off by them, or do they 

 not fear their resentment in a way which lessens their chances? " 

 To all this I answer " No," nor do I believe that anybody who 

 had witnessed what takes place could give a different answer. 

 The fighting, as a matter of fact, has nothing to do with it. In 

 the matter of the courtship it is not, as far as I can see, a 

 working force at all. Prolonged encounters between rival 

 aspirants, ending in the defeat of one of them, and thus leaving 

 a champs libre to the victor, do not obtain. Instead, there are 

 nothing but short spasmodic outbreaks, without direction or 

 guiding principle, and producing no other effect than that of 

 general commotion — "confusion worse confounded." The Buff 

 does not fight intelligently, and also he fights very much less 

 than is popularly supposed, or than his name, in the Latin, 

 implies. He simply darts and springs and kicks and whirrs his 

 wings, like a frantic creature, and though this, on the part of a 

 dozen or twenty birds, makes a great spectacular effect, yet, if 

 we were to estimate the amount of time and energy expended by 

 any individual in actual conflict during the whole day, we should 

 find it very much less than we might have expected — little indeed 

 compared, for instance, to the Bedshanks — and what there was 

 would have been dispersed amongst a number of individuals, 

 met at haphazard, and on not one of whom it had exercised any 

 effect.* There are Buffs, indeed, who, owing to their being 

 young or their plumage not being grown, or, as it has sometimes 



* In regard, I mean, to the main issue. 



