378 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



I have latterly seen at the old place, for, as I have remarked 

 during the course of this afternoon, though each one has its 

 more special habitues, they each fly from one to the other. This 

 of course takes away all value from the fact of several very 

 handsome Ruffs, as they seem to me, never having paired with 

 any Reeve on the ground which I have been watching — or my 

 never having seen them do so, to speak more precisely. They 

 were not at their own club, so to speak, but merely visitors from 

 another one. At this other one, where I have already seen 

 several of them, they may be in as much request as the brown, 

 blue, or black-maned birds have been here. And yet there is no 

 particular reason why they should be. Since the males of this 

 species differ so greatly from one another, (there is no general 

 type of coloration which might indicate a standard of taste, and 

 why should the average Reeve's taste conform to our own ? 

 Moreover, our own would differ, but if we try to imagine an 

 average one and compare it with that of the birds whose elections 

 I have seen, the remarks which I have already made on this head* 

 seem to me to apply. On this part of the subject, however, I do 

 not wish to lay much stress. Much more evidence would be 

 needed before, upon such observations, alone, one could arrive at 

 any certain conclusion, and moreover it is clear to me that, if 

 election is made by the female bird at all, it is made, in large 

 measure, through the eye. But the Reeves do choose, they do 

 make election, of that I have had clear evidence repeated again 

 and again. Their partialities are as real as our own, and they 

 are not founded on the fighting powers of the bird that is the 

 object of them, nor yet made inoperative through these. What, 

 then, is the exact significance of a pugnacity which does not 

 appear to be of use to the male in proportion to the extent to 

 which it has been developed in him ? To answer this question 

 it may be necessary to look to the past as well as to the present, 

 for both are equally the province of evolution. That Ruffs, at 

 one time, fought more and courted less, and that they will, as 

 time goes on, fight still less and court still more, does not seem 

 to me an altogether improbable supposition, in view of the state 

 of things at present existing, for with much fighting— though less 

 than is generally imagined, and rather collectively than indi- 



* Cf. ante, pp. 165-6. 



