Female bird

“ Here, then, in the female bird we see developed in a remarkable degree the power of discrimination, the exercise of taste, a sense of beauty, and the ability to choose—qualities which the facts brought forward by scientists show conclusively to have been acquired by the female and by her transmitted to her offspring. ”

“ On the whole, there seems to be a system of Women's Rights prevailing among the birds, which, contemplated from the standpoint of the male, is quite admirable. In almost all cases of joint interest, the female bird is the most active. She determines the site of the nest, and is usually the most absorbed in its construction. ”

“ A female will jump up and be immediately pursued by two to five males, and as they all twist about, in and out, twittering all the time, the alternate flashing of their reddish backs and black lower parts seems like the signals of the telegraphic code. The males appear never to catch the females, but to try to keep as close to them as possible. When they alight again in the flock whence they started they at once resume feeding without further display. The thrilling song of this dainty bird is delivered while hovering with quivering wing beats in mid-air. ”

“ If female birds are really so apathetic and male ones so equally satisfied with any partner they can get, it seems difficult to see on what principle the two, when paired, remain constant to one another during the nesting season, and still more, perhaps, why numbers of birds pair for life. ”

“ I especially noticed that both sexes frequently jerked up the closed wings, thus, in the case of the hen, showing their yellow lining. Now, if the male of this bird were conspicuously coloured on the under side of the wings, and used this gesture as he does at present, it would be put down as designed for a sexual attraction; and as the female birds are supposed, with much reason, to frequently exhibit a former stage in the colouration of the male, it may be suggested that in this case the colouration of the wings and the trick of lifting them was originally masculine ”

“ The next year he was shut up in a stable, and then the hens all courted his rival.' Female birds not only exert a choice, but in some few cases they court the male and even fight together for his possession. ”

“ Probably the females would be more compliant than they generally are if one male were the only suitor. But the fact that the males are in most species in the majority gives the female bird the boon of freedom of choice. ”

“ The female bird, while sitting on her eggs in an uncovered nest, is much exposed to the attacks of enemies, and any modification of colour which rendered her more conspicuous would often lead to her destruction and that of her offspring. ”

“ I noticed, too, and thought it curious, that a female would often approach a male bird with her head and neck laid flat along the water as though in a very "coming-on disposition," and that the male bird declined her advances. ”

“ And at what other time does he go through those extraordinary, what one might call, gestures to the female; he does all he can to speak? At times, when he twists his neck round and turns his head upward, he appears to be imploring heaven to help him.
I could mention many similar cases, but these, I think, are sufficient to prove that the whole powers of the bird's body and mind are concentrated solely on the possession of a female. This being so, it appears to me to be highly improbable that this action can in any way refer directly to the construction of the nest. ”

“ The nuptial cries or notes of birds are a chief way in which the one sex, on the theory of sexual selection, endeavours to render itself pleasing to the other. When these charm our own ears to an extent which we think deserving of the name of song, it is usually the male alone that utters them, those uttered by the female not rising to the height of such a definition. ”

“ The female is a timid, unoffending bird, as peaceful in her demeanour as quiet in her garb. The tints of her plumage, far less gaudy than in the male, are a protection to her in the nesting season, [Pg 222] as being less likely to attract the notice either of poachers or vermin. Indeed, were she always to lie close, her nest would not be easily discovered, for the colour of her feathers so closely resembles that of withered leaves, that she is, when sitting, less conspicuous than her uncovered eggs would be. ”

“ I have never in the least doubted the possibility of modifying female birds alone for protection; and I have long believed it for butterflies: I have wanted only evidence for the females alone of birds having had their colours modified for protection. But then I believe that the variations by which a female bird or butterfly could get or has got protective colouring have probably from the first been variations limited in their transmission to the female sex ”

“ But when one afterwards sees two birds at the nest—male and female beyond a doubt—mutually or alternately performing some portion of these antics, though without the primary prostration, [13] what is one to think then? In such cases as these, where the sexes are not to be distinguished except by dissection, or having the bird in one's hands, we cannot be sure that it is always the male we see displaying to the female, and never the female to the male. ”

“ I have frequently seen the robin courting, and have always been astonished and amused at the utter coldness and indifference of the female. The females of every species of bird, however, I believe, have this in common,—they are absolutely free from coquetry, or any airs and wiles whatever. In most cases, Nature has given the song and the plumage to the other sex, and all the embellishing and acting is done by the male bird. ”

“ The female and young birds of both sexes differ very considerably from the old male in the marking of their plumage, and hence has arisen no end of confusion and the various names assigned to this bird ”

“ The sexes are here assumed, for the male and female stock-dove do not differ sufficiently for one to distinguish them at a distance through the glasses. When, however, one sees a bird fly, like this, to another one and begin the regular courting action, one seems justified in assuming it to be a male and the other a female. ”

“ In seeking to explain such performances as those of the spur-winged lapwing in this latter way, one must assume the number of three birds to have originated in accordance with general principles, and that first there has been a real courtship of the female bird by two males, the antics proper to which have, at last, become stereotyped into a formal dance or display. ”

“ By reason of this display—for such it may certainly be termed—I took it to be the male, and, as the sequel will show, it may just as well have been as the other, the feathers of whose tail were but little, if at all, expanded, and who in all other respects presented a quite ordinary appearance, seeming—I think, as a consequence—to be a good deal smaller. All at once the displaying bird crouched, upon which the pairing took place, the supposed female acting as, under such circumstances, the male bird normally acts. ”

“ A bird—we will think her the female, as she performs the most mother-like part—has just flown in with a fish—a sand-eel—in her bill. She makes her way with it to the partner, who rises and shifts the chick that he has been brooding over from himself to her. ”

“ These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male sex, while the female is really a very plain and ordinary-looking bird of a uniform coffee-brown colour which never changes, neither does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow or green feather about the dead. The young males of the first year exactly resemble the females, so that they can only be distinguished by dissection. ”

“ The female is now discovered to be entirely destitute of all the fine blue colours, both pale and dark, by which the male is adorned, except that there is a very narrow circle of azure round each eye, apparently on the skin only: all the upper feathers consist of shades of brown, and the whole throat and belly is pure white. Except from the shape and size, this bird would not be suspected at first sight to belong to the same species as the male: the epithet of superb applies very ill to the female. ”

“ But if this does ever happen, may we not have here the origin—or one of the origins—of those undoubted displays made by the male bird to the female, on which the theory of sexual selection is chiefly based? ”

“ It must, however, be understood that when I say it is the male bird who thus pays his court to the female, I am only inferring that this is the case. There was nothing beyond likelihood and analogy to guide me in what I saw, and from some subsequent observations I have reason to think that these antics are common to both sexes. As a rule, however, one may safely assume that the bird which in such matters both takes the initiative and does so in a very decided manner, is the male. ”

“ Then what should first lead a bird of dull plumage consciously to display this plumage before the female? A mere habit of the male, increased and perfected by the selective agency of the female (as this is explained by Darwin) , has hitherto—as far as I know—been considered a sufficient explanation of the origin and early stages of such displays as are now made by the great bustard, the various birds of paradise, or the argus pheasant. ”

“ Male of smaller size than female: dark brown; with tail, pointed feathers of shoulders and base of primaries, pale rusty brown. On the breast, that part of each feather which is nearly white in the female, is pale brown: bill black, cere white, tarsi gray. As may be inferred from this description, the female is a much more beautiful bird than the male, and all the tints, both of the dark and pale colours, are much more strongly pronounced. ”

“ Later on I hope to publish additional notes on sexual wingstructure in other birds. As a rule, the male wing is specially modified to enable the bird to overtake its female; but sometimes the development seems to serve the purpose of sustained rather than rapid flight ”

“ Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. ”

“ These and many other colours of female birds seem to me exactly analogous to the colours of both sexes in such groups as the snipes, woodcocks, plovers, ptarmigan, desert birds, Arctic animals, greenbirds. ”

“ The males charm the females in various ways, such as dancing, or performing fantastic antics either in the air or on the ground; and then again by most melodious song. After man, the female birds appear to be the most æsthetic of all animals; therefore, those male birds that are the most pleasing songsters, or the [154] most attractive in their dances and fantastic performances, are the ones selected by the females for mating. ”

“ Many also moult again the following spring, when they put on their wedding dress; and one of the curious things about this change of plumage is, that the new feathers often come out quite unlike those that were cast off. So a bird may differ much in appearance at different seasons and ages—in fact, most birds do. The male also differs in many cases from the female, being more handsomely dressed than his mate. ”

“ With birds, as we shall hereafter see, there has sometimes been a complete transposition of the ordinary characters proper to each sex; the females having become the more eager in courtship, the males remaining comparatively passive, but apparently selecting, as we may infer from the results, the more attractive females. Certain female birds have thus been rendered more highly coloured or otherwise ornamented, as well as more powerful and pugnacious than the males, these characters being transmitted to the female offspring alone. ”

“ Female Birds of Paradise are 77obscurely coloured and destitute of all ornaments, whilst the males are probably the most highly decorated of all birds, and in so many ways, that they must be seen to be appreciated. ”

“ The presence of this bright throat spot in so many species cannot very well be attributed to voluntary sexual selection, although believers in that theory are of course at liberty to imagine that when engaged in courtship, the male bird, or rather male and female both, as both sexes possess the spot, hold up their heads vertically to exhibit it. ”

“ Female birds can usually be identified after the adult males have been seen, although the females and young of many species are obscurely marked or quite different from the adult males, a fact especially true of the warblers. Immature birds are not considered in the present scheme of study since they are a source of confusion to the beginner and occur in any considerable number only during the fall migration. ”

“ In this selection the female birds have paid the minutest attention to fleeting fashions in strut and dance, in form and color,—the progeny of those males that have been selected by the females for mating, transmitting the inherited peculiarities of the parents, have tended more and more to stamp as fixtures these fleeting fashions, and in this way the males have become endowed with all sorts of decorations and accomplishments. ”

“ So with the song of birds, the sweet strains poured forth by the males during the season of love are certainly admired by the females, of which fact evidence will hereafter be given. If female birds had been incapable of appreciating the beautiful colours, the ornaments, and voices 64of their male partners, all the labour and anxiety exhibited by them in displaying their charms before the females would have been thrown away ”

“ It would even appear that mere novelty, or slight changes for the sake of change, have sometimes acted on female birds as a charm, like changes of fashion with us. Thus the males of some parrots can hardly be said to be more beautiful than the females, at least according to our taste, but they differ in such points, as in having a rose-coloured collar instead of "a bright emeraldine narrow green collar;" ”