1878.] 
Colouration of the Organic World. 
53 
absence of any evidence that the females admire, or even 
notice, this display. “ The hen, the turkey, and the pea-fowl 
go on feeding while the male is displaying his finery) and 
there is reason to believe that it is his persistency and 
energy, rather than his beauty, which wins the day.” Here, 
again, vigour and intense vitality seem to he the chief 
recommendations of the male in the eyes of the female, and 
these — as is very strikingly manifest in the game cock — 
appear correlated with intense colouration. Mr. Wallace 
resumes : — “ Evidence collected by Mr. Darwin himself 
proves that each bird finds a mate under any circumstances. 
He gives a number of cases of one of a pair of birds being 
shot, and of the survivor being always found paired again 
almost immediately. This is sufficiently explained on the 
assumption that the destruction of birds by various causes 
is continually leaving widows and widowers in nearly equal 
proportions, and thus each one finds a fresh mate ; and it 
leads to the conclusion that permanently unpaired birds are 
very scarce, so that, speaking broadly, every bird finds a 
mate and breeds. But this would almost or quite neutralise 
any effeCt of sexual selection, of colour, or ornament, since 
the less highly-coloured birds would be at no disadvantage 
as regards leaving healthy offspring.” Whilst accepting 
this conclusion, we may ask whether the same argument is 
not capable of further application ? It is generally stated 
that the “ fittest ” male — i.e., the one most in harmony with 
the circumstances in which he is placed — will have the 
best chance of securing a mate and of leaving offspring, 
whilst the feebler, the slower, the less energetic, and those 
least in harmony with the situation, wall be left in a state of 
single blessedness, and will not transmit their attributes to 
posterity. But on the principles laid down in the passage 
we have just quoted the effects of natural selection will be 
greatly neutralised. It must, however, be remembered that 
the destruction of birds, especially in a state of Nature, will 
not fall exclusively or mainly upon those which have secured 
mates, but will likewise extend to the unwedded. 
Whilst combatting Mr. Darwin’s view, that the brilliant 
colours of butterflies have been acquired for the sake of 
protection, Mr. Wallace remarks : — “ It is in faCt somewhat 
remarkable how very generally the black spots, ocelli, or 
bright patches of colour are on the tips, margins, or disks 
of the wings ; and as the inseCts are necessarily visible 
while flying, and this is the time when they are most subject 
to attacks of insectivorous birds, the position of the more 
conspicuous parts at some distance from the body may be a 
