Chap. XXL 
AXD CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 
401 
on the wing-feathers of the male. He who thinks that 
the male was created as he now exists must admit that 
the great plumes, w^hich prevent the wings from being 
used for flight, and which, as well as the primary 
feathers, are displayed in a manner quite peculiar to 
this one species during the act of courtship, and at no 
other time, were given to him as an ornament. If so, 
he must likewise admit that the female was created and 
endowed with the capacity of appreciating such orna- 
ments. I differ only in the conviction that the male 
Argus pheasant acquired his beauty gradually, through 
the females having preferred during many genera- 
tions the more highly ornamented males ; the msthetic 
capacity of the females having been advanced through 
exercise or habit in the same manner as our own taste 
is gradually improved. In the male, through the for- 
tunate chance of a few feathers not having been modified, 
we can distinctly see how simple spots with a little 
fulvous shading on one side might have been de- 
veloped by small and graduated steps into the won- 
derful ball-and-socket ornaments ; and it is probable 
that they were actually thus developed. 
Everyone who admits the principle of evolution, and 
yet feels great difficulty in admitting that female 
mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, could have acquired 
the high standard of taste which is implied by the 
beauty of the males, and which generally coincides with 
our own standard, should reflect that in each member 
of the vertebrate series the nerve-cells of the brain are 
the direct offshoots of those possessed by the common 
progenitor of the whole group. It thus becomes intel- 
ligible that the brain and mental faculties should be 
capable under similar conditions of nearly the same 
coarse of development, and consequently of performing 
nearly the same functions. 
VOL. II. 2 D 
