SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 213 



and deliberate manner. That the female was, from the first, 

 interested, became absorbed in, and was at last won by, the per- 

 formance, seemed as obvious as such a thing can be. One can 

 only interpret, but her confession alone could add force to the 

 evidence. This can in no case be obtained, and in the citadel 

 which this want creates the opponents of sexual selection can for 

 ever ensconce themselves. I do not think that the actions above 

 described are always gone through with, in their entirety. This 

 may depend on the particular male, but much more probably, I 

 think, the same bird first does all he can to please the female, 

 and then, as she becomes more and more willing, scamps the 

 preliminaries. This difference is very marked in the Pheasant, 

 and it is a point which ought to be taken into the fullest con- 

 sideration by those who set themselves seriously to observe. 



Another courtship of precisely the same character, but here 

 the female seemed less inclined, from the first, and, though she 

 stood in exactly the same position during the bannering, yet she 

 was not won by it, but suddenly darted away, just as the male 

 was about to rise. The latter looked both disappointed and 

 resentful, but made no further attempt — the power seemed com- 

 pletely in the hands of the female, and, from the beginning, she 

 looked less attendrie. There 1 was another point in the courtship, 

 to be remarked on. Whilst the wings were waved the bright red 

 legs were moved, also, in a very noticeable manner, each being 

 brought, somewhat slowly, in advance of the other. This I have 

 already noticed, and it was, I think, the case before — but I had 

 not taken it in so fully. To the white tail and light under- 

 surface of the wings, therefore, as points in the display of the 

 male, must be added the coral-like legs — all the effective things, 

 in fact, which he has to display. Why he should thus produce 

 and enhance them before the eyes of the female, if she cannot be 

 moved by them, why the female should thereupon act as though 

 she were moved by them, in a greater or less degree, if she really 

 is not, and how she can be moved by them, and, at the same time, 

 indifferent to them, are questions which I am quite unable to 

 answer. For these actual, tangible things, as motives to action, 

 we are asked to substitute a mere abstract idea, or something, in 

 comparison, very like it — vigour, namely. The bird is to be won 

 less through the eye than through the mind. " All this," she is 



