122 
sexual selection: birds. 
Pi*' 
J 
hand, in effecting hybrid unions between the & J 
pheasant and common hens, Mr. Hewitt is convi^^, 
that the pheasant invariably prefers the older l' ir ^ 
He does not appear to be in the least influence" ^ 
their colour, but “ is most “ capricious in his 
ments .” 29 From some inexplicable cause he shews . I 
8 <* 
most determined aversion to certain hens, which 
care on the part of the breeder can overcome, 
hens, as Mr. Hewitt informs me, are cpiite unatti'F 
even to the males of their own species, so that 
may bo kept with several cocks during a whole 
$ 
/ 
son, and not one egg out of forty or fifty will F; vl 
fertile. On the other baud with the Long-tailed 11 ; 
(. Marelda glacialis), “it has been remarked, s " 
M. Ekstrom, “that certain females are much 
“courted than the rest. Frequently, indeed, o» e 
“ an individual surrounded by six or eight 
“males.” Whether this statement is credible, I 
not; but the native sportsmen shoot these feimd 6 
order to stuff them as decoys . 30 d I 
With respect to female birds feeling a pref'eret^ 1 ’ ^ 
particular males, we must bear in mind that v' e 
judge of choice being exerted, only by placin; 
o ' 11 
selves in imagination in the samo position. * 
inhabitant of another planet were to behold a j 
of young rustics at a fair, courting and quart 6 M 
over a pretty girl, like birds at one of their ph 10 * I 
assemblage, he would be able to infer that she h 3L | 
power of choice only by observing the eagerness 0 ^ 
wooers to please her, and to display their finery- 'yf 
with birds, the evidence stands thus ; they have 
powers of observation, and they seem to have b 
- 9 Mr. Hewitt, quoted in ‘ Tegetmcier’s Poultry Book,’ 18 fiC ’ 
30 Quoted in Lloyd’s 1 Game Birds of Sweden,’ p. 345. 
JF, 
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