1.890.) Probable Causes of Polygamy Among Birds. 1027 
ard of beauty of form and color of the male (a criterion of first 
importance in female choice) inclines to variability in the secon- 
. dary characters of her offspring. Take a hypothetical case: A 
monogamous female Gallus, actuated in times long past by sudden 
fancy (causation always obscure), gives preference to a male of 
her kind because of his individual superiority as a bird of extra 
fine feathers and bearing. Their young naturally inherit some- 
what of the parental peculiarity, and in accord with a recognized 
law, styled that of “ prepotency,” among highly-colored birds, they 
are also strong, healthy, and have a sexual vigor above their com- 
peers. Thus inaugurated, the selective faculty works its uncon- 
scious leaven during centuries of slow development until the male 
descendants of that first pair would become conscious of their 
superiority and of the value of their peculiar charms to the 
females. Courtship, as distinguished from mere off-hand pairing, 
would now assert itself as a necessary preliminary to more inti- 
mate relations, the result of which is seen at the present day in 
the love antics, war dances, and dress parades that characterize 
the amours of polygamous birds. Pride and vanity inevitably 
follow competitive display, however innocent its origin, and by a 
natural and easy progression comes the passionate appeal to 
arms, culminating in the periodic passage-at-arms in a chosen 
arena. No pyrotechnic result this, but effected by centuries of 
slow combustion from a spark of female fantasy ! 
“So far not impossible,” say you; “but where is your polyg- 
amist?” I answer: “There he is, as far as description may iden- 
tify or an introduction make him your acquaintance; henceforth he 
can be no other; thus born, thus bred, polygamy is an inevitable 
result.” As surely as the Eastern despot, of kingly descent and 
inherited superiority in mental and physical prowess, taketh unto 
himself, by virtue thereof, a harem of wives, so will our modern 
Gallus aspire to polygamous concubinage when he finds himself 
on the “lek”? of a spring morning, with glad prospect of a tour- 
nament ere sunrise herald him the victor of many a tilt. 
3 The spot chosen by Pong birds on n which to display their charms and battle for 
the ownership of the fem 
