78 
sexual selection: bieds. 
Part 
orange plumes which spring from beneath the ' v ' n ' 
of the Paradisea apoda (see fig. 47 of P. rubra, a 
less beautiful species), when vertically erected and 
to vibrate, are described as forming a sort of hal°' 
the centre of which the head “ looks like a h 1 ,,,. 
“ emerald sun with its rays formed by the two plume* 
In another most beautiful species the head is 
“ and of a rich cobalt blue, crossed by several lines v 
“ black velvety leathers.” 69 
Male humming-birds (figs. 48 and 49) almost 
with Birds of Paradise in their beauty, as every one 
admit who has seen Mr. Gould’s splendid volumes or 
rich collection. It is very remarkable in how nn 11 ’, 
different ways these birds are ornamented. Almost 
part of the plumage has been taken advantage of & , 
modified; and the modifications have been carried. \ 
Mr. Gould shewed me, to a wonderful extreme in s 0 "' 
species belonging to nearly every sub-group. Such 
are curiously like those which we see in our fatw 
breeds, reared by man for the sake of ornament : cert*’ 
individuals originally varied in one character, and oh 1 
individuals belonging to the same species in 1 , 
characters ; and these have been seized on by man ^ 
augmented to an extreme point — as the tail of * j 
fantail-pigeon, the hood of the jacobin, the beak 0|1 , 
wattle of the carrier, and so forth. The sole differ 11 ( 
between these cases is that in the one the result is 1 1 , 
to man’s selection, whilst in the other, as with H 11 j 
ming-birds, Birds of Paradise, &c., it is due to seZ'f, 
selection, — that is to the selection by the females of * 
more beautiful males. 
. .{ft 
68 Quoted from M. do Lafresnaye, in ‘Annals and Mag. ot 
Hist.’ vol. siii. 1854, p. 157 : see also Mr. Wallace’s much full 01 
count in vol. xx. 1857, p. 412, and in Ins Malay Archipelago. 
69 Wallace, ‘The Malay Archipelago,’ vol. ii. 1869, p. 405. 
