SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 425 



less wintry, the male may not be ready to avail himself of 

 the opportunity. He certainly did not do so on the occasion in 

 question, though apparently on the point of it. Here, too, as it 

 appears to me, we have matter which should give us pause ere 

 we accept, in its entirety, the old view as to the coyness of the 

 female, and the eagerness of the male. The Reeve, though it is 

 early in the season — and she apparently has yet, or rather 

 again, to be won — is not exhibited in a very coy light, and the 

 Ruff, in spite of his rufflings, cannot meet her half-way, in 

 essentials. He has been, at least, as coy as she. What is this 

 coyness then that we exalt into a real active quality, and apply 

 to one sex only ? Is it not a mere negative, the want of that 

 motive which, to lead to adequate action, must first be felt 

 sufficiently ? Are we coy when we have not much appetite and 

 toy with our food ; or, again, when filled to repletion, we avoid 

 for some time another banquet— which we would even fly from if 

 it actively wooed us ? Perhaps we are, but, if so, then we have 

 given, in natural history, a false value to the word, and an 

 unreal limitation to one sex, of the thing. In this sense, how- 

 ever, which makes it nothing, coyness, I own, is a real force in 

 nature, and under its tiresome influence it seems as though I 

 should never see what I have principally come to see — the actual 

 consummation of the rite, that is — "the attempt and not the 

 deed confounds us." 



The Reeve, as far as I can see, has great power in the 

 assembly. She is quite at her ease there, and, though occa- 

 sionally embarrassed by the commotion of male birds about her, 

 so that she may have to run a little, yet she seems to have power 

 over the feelings she awakes. It has also sometimes seemed to 

 me that, in some unknown way, she can either excite the males 

 in a high degree, or hardly at all. 



April 23rd. — Got to my watch-house at 12.30 p.m. only, 

 instead of in the early morning, as I had intended ; but, feeling 

 myself obliged to make a certain visit, and having chosen yester- 

 day, which was Sunday, to get it behind me, I was up late 

 writing, and so overslept myself in consequence — thus does any- 

 thing social interfere with anything worth doing. Two birds 

 flew off as I came up, one of them being a brown one, which I 

 know quite well — the loved of a certain Reeve. Now, on the 



