OCR Text |
Show 100 GENERAL SUMMARY PAlU' II. ing with certain individuals of the other sex, characterised in some peculiar manner, the offspring would slowly but surely become modified in this same manner. I have not attempted to conceal that, excepting when tho males are more numerous than the females, or when polygamy prevails, it is doubtful how the more attractive males succeed in leaving a larger number of ciTspring to inherit their superiority in ornaments or other ·charms than the less attractive males; but I have ~hewn that this would probably follow from the fernales,-especially the more vigorous females which would be the first .to breed, preferring not only the more attractive but at the same time tho more vigorous and victorious males. Although we have some positive evidence that Lirds appreciate bright and beautiful objects, as with the Bower-birds of Australia, and although they certainly appreciate the power of song, yet I fully admit that it is an astonishing fact that the females of many birds and some mammals should be endowed with sufficient taste for what has apparently been effected through sexual selection ; and this is even more astonishing h1 the case of reptiles, fish, and insects. But we really know very little about the minds of the lower animals. It cannot Le supposed that male Birds of Paradiso or Peacocks, for instance, should take so much pains in erecting, spreading, and viLrating their beautiful plumes before the females for no purpose. We should remember tho fact given on excellent authority in a former chaptor, namely that scyeral peahens, when debarred from .an admired male, remained widows during a whole season rather than pair with another bird. Nevertheless I know of no fact in natural history more wonderful than that the female Argus pheasant should be able to appreciate the exquisite shading of the ball-and-socket ornaments and the elegant patterns CHAP. XXI. AND CONCLUDING REMARKS. 401 on the wing-feathers of the malo. He who thinks that tho male was created as he now exists must admit that the great plumes, which prevent the wings from being used for flight, and whieh, as well as tho 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 capaeity of app1·eciating such ornaments. 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; tho resthetic 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 fortunate chance of a few feathers not having been modified, we can distinctly see how simple spots with a little fulvous shading on one siuo might have been developed by small and graduated steps into the wonderful ball-and-socket ornaments; and it is probable that they we1·e 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 tastP- 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 intelligible that the brain and mental faculties should be capable under similar conditions of nearly the same course of development, and consequently of performing nearly the same functions. VOL. II. 2 D |