A1137    Review:     Tait R. L. 1871. Artistic Feeling of the Lower Animals: 280-1 and [Review of] Descent of Man: 288-9. The Spectator (11 March).   Text   PDF

streaks of yellow, while the appearance of a few red bows in the neighbourhood would have caused a perfect enthusiasm. And instead of the elegant ear-tufts of certain humming-birds, such as Mr. Darwin describes, they would have influenced the development in the direction of heavy ear-drops adapted expressly to distort the shape of the ear. The exquisite harmony and graduation of the various bird plumage would certainly never have been produced by the selective preferences of the lowest order of human

F1142    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1872. The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray. First edition.   Text   Image   PDF

To those who admit the gradual evolution of species, a most striking instance of the perfection with which the most difficult consensual movements can be transmitted, is afforded by the humming-bird Sphinx-moth (Macroglossa); for this moth, shortly after its emergence from the cocoon, as shown by the bloom on its unruffled scales, may be seen poised stationary in the air, with its long hair-like proboscis uncurled and inserted into the minute orifices of flowers; and no one, I believe, has

A2791    Book contribution:     Somerville, Mary. 1873. Comment on Descent of Man. In Personal Recollections, from early life to old age of Mary Somerville. London: John Murray, pp. 357-359.   Text   PDF

existence was unknown prior to the invention of the microscope. The Duke of Argyll has illustrated this in the Reign of Law, by the variety, graceful forms and beautiful colouring of the humming birds in forests which man has never entered. In Mr. Darwin's book it is amusing to see how, conscious the male birds are of their beauty; they have reason to be so, but we scorn the vanity of the savage who decks himself in their spoils. Many women without remorse allow the life of a pretty bird to be

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

, in the two species just named the wing-feathers become blue before the others. The most probable view with reference to the cases in the present class is that the males, differently from what occurs in Class I., have transmitted their colours to their male offspring at an earlier age than that at which they were first acquired; for, if the males had varied whilst quite young, their characters would probably have been transmitted to both sexes.48 In A thurus polytmus, a humming-bird, the male is

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

mandrill, 177; polygamy of the 217, 590, 591; voice of the, 527; cranium of, 558; fighting of male, 562. Gosse, P. H., on the pugnacity of the male Humming-bird, 360. , M., on the inheritance of artificial modifications of the skull, 603. Gould, B. A., on variation in the length of the legs in man, 26; measurements of American soldiers, 30, 32; on the proportions of the body and capacity of the lungs in different races of men, 167; on the the inferior vitality of mulattoes, 171. , J., on migration

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

we shall hereafter see more clearly) of the immature plumage of young birds we can sometimes indicate with a certain amount of confidence, the probable steps by which the males have acquired their brilliant plumage and various ornaments; yet in many cases we are involved in complete darkness. Mr. Gould several years ago pointed out to me a humming-bird, the Urosticte benjamini, remarkable for the curious differences between the sexes. The male, besides a splendid gorget, has greenish-black tail

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

air. In one instance, at least, the male emits a musky odour, which we may suppose serves to charm or excite the female; for that excellent observer, Mr. Ramsay,1that the smell which the male emits during the summer months is confined to that sex, and in some individuals is retained throughout the year; I have never, even in the breeding-season, shot a female which had any smell of musk. So powerful is this odour during the pairing-season, that it can be detected long before the bird can be seen.2

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, are descended from some one prototype; for they have much in common, especially during their embryonic state. As the class of fishes is the most lowly organised, and appeared before the others, we may conclude that all the members of the vertebrate kingdom are derived from some fishlike animal. The belief that animals so distinct as a monkey, an elephant, a humming-bird, a snake, a frog, and a fish, c., could all have sprung from the same parents, will appear

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

silver articles or jewels? Mr. Gould states that certain humming-birds decorate the outsides of their nests with the utmost taste; they instinctively fasten thereon beautiful pieces of flat lichen, the larger pieces in the middle, and the smaller on the part attached to the branch. Now and then a pretty feather is intertwined or fastened to the outer sides, the stem being always so placed, that the feather stands out beyond the surface. The best evidence, however, of a taste for the beautiful is

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

peculiar manner. Thus the wing-feathers in one of the above-mentioned night-jars are bare along the shaft, and terminate in a disc; or are, as they are sometimes called, spoon or racket-shaped. Feathers of this kind occur in the tail of a motmot (Eumomota superciliaris), of a king-fisher, finch, humming-bird, parrot, several Indian drongos (Dicrurus and Edolius, in one of which the disc stands vertically), and in the tail of certain birds of paradise. In these latter birds, similar feathers

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

certain emotions, as of anger, by the tone of their humming; and according to H. M ller (p. 80), the males of some species make a peculiar singing noise whilst pursuing the females. 61 M. Perrier in his article 'la S lection sexuelled d'apr s Darwin' ('Revue Scientifique,' Feb. 1873, p. 868), without apparently having reflected much on the subject, objects that as the males of social bees are known to be produced from unfertilised ova, they could not transmit new characters to their male offspring

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

, sonorous clangs from the van may be heard in the darkness overhead, answered by clangs in the rear. Certain cries serve as danger signals, which, as the sportsman knows to his cost, are understood by the same species and by others. The domestic cock crows, and the humming-bird chirps, in triumph over a defeated rival. The true song, however, of most birds and various strange cries are chiefly uttered during the breeding-season, and serve as a charm, or merely as a call-note, to the other sex

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

alike; for when in these groups the male does differ from the female, as with certain parrots, kingfishers, pigeons, c., the young of both sexes resemble the adult female.2 We see the same fact exhibited still more clearly in certain anomalous cases; thus the male of Heliothrix auriculata (one of the humming-birds) differs conspicuously from the female in having a splendid gorget and fine ear-tufts, but the female is remarkable from having a much longer tail than that of the male; now the young

F944    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1874. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed.; tenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

, 41; on the hand, 51. , T., on the numerical proportion of the sexes in moles, 247; on the newts, 348; on the croaking of the frog, 350; on the difference in the coloration of the sexes in Zootoca vivipara, 357; on moles fighting, 500. Bell-bird, sexual difference in the colour of the, 389. Bell-birds, colours of, 492. Belt, Mr., on the nakedness of tropical mankind, 57; on a spider-monkey and eagle, 102; habits of ants, 147; Lampyrid distasteful to mammals, 277; mimicry of Leptalides, 325

F880.1    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1875. The variation of animals and plants under domestication. London: John Murray. 2d ed. vol. 1.   Text   Image   PDF

humming-bird should be found in the Old World. From the character of the other gallinaceous birds of Africa, it is not probable that Gallus is an African genus. We need not look to the western parts of Asia, for Messrs. Blyth and Crawfurd, who have attended to this subject, doubt whether Gallus ever existed in a wild state even as far west as Persia. Although the earliest Greek writers speak of the fowl as a Persian bird, this probably merely indicates its line of importation. For the

A1014.2    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1876. The geographical distribution of animals; with a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface. London: Macmillan & Co. vol. 2.   Text

island of Tres Marias, about 60 miles from the west coast of Mexico, possesses a peculiar species of humming-bird, and the Bahamas two species; but none inhabit either the Falkland Islands or the Galapagos. Like most groups which are very rich in species and in generic forms, the humming-birds are generally very local, small [page] 32

F1249    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1876. The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

same time on the same plant. I have seen hive-bees sucking at the mouths of the flowers of the common bean; humble-bees of one kind sucking through holes bitten in the calyx, and humble-bees of another kind sucking the little drops of fluid excreted by the stipules. Mr. Beal of Michigan informs me that the flowers of the Missouri currant (Ribes aureum) abound with nectar, so that children often suck them; and he saw hive-bees sucking through holes made by a bird, the oriole, and at the same time

A1014.2    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1876. The geographical distribution of animals; with a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface. London: Macmillan & Co. vol. 2.   Text

Russian America), where a humming-bird (Selasphorus rufus) breeds. The great majority of these are typically American, including such forms as Colaptes, Helminthophaga, Siurus, Dendrœca, Myiodioctes, Passerculus, Zonotrichia, Junco, Spizella, Melospizpa, Passerella, Scoleophagas, Pediocetes, and Bonasa; [page break

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

The male alone of one of the Indian bustards (Sypheotides auritus) has its primary wing-feathers greatly acuminated; and the male of an allied species is known to make a humming noise whilst courting the female.55 Fig. 44. Primary wing-feather of a Humming-bird, the Selasphorus platycercus (from a sketch by Mr. Salvin). Upper figure, that of male; lower figure, corresponding feather of female. In a widely different group of birds, namely Humming-birds, the males alone of certain kinds have

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

sufficient evidence. Mr. Salvin tells me he has been led to believe that humming-birds are polygamous. The male widow-bird, remarkable for his caudal plumes, certainly seems to be a polygamist.16 I have been assured by Mr. Jenner Weir and by others, that it is somewhat common for three starlings to frequent the same nest; but whether this is a case of polygamy or polyandry has not been ascertained. The Gallinaceæ exhibit almost as strongly marked sexual differences as birds of paradise or humming-birds

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

natural selection. In some of the above cases, however, it is possible that the beaks of the males may have been first modified in relation to their contests with other males; and that this afterwards led to slightly changed habits of life. Law of Battle.—Almost all male birds are extremely pugnacious, using their beaks, wings, and legs for fighting together. We see this every spring with our robins and sparrows. The smallest of all birds, namely the humming-bird, is one of the most quarrelsome

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

recently given of the humming-birds near Bogota, in which certain individuals alone have the central tail-feathers tipped with beautiful green. In the female of the Urosticte I noticed extremely minute or rudimental white tips to the two outer of the four central black tail-feathers; so that here we have an indication of change of some kind in the plumage of this species. If we grant the possibility of the central tail-feathers of the male varying in whiteness, there is nothing strange in such

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

, 578. Huia, the, of New Zealand, 208. Human, man classed alone in a, kingdom, 147. — sacrifices, 96. Humanity, unknown among some savages, 118; deficiency of, among savages, 123. Humboldt, A. von, on the rationality of mules, 78; on a parrot preserving the language of a lost tribe, 181; on the cosmetic arts of savages, 574; on the exaggeration of natural characters by man, 582; on the red painting of American Indians, 583. Hume, D., on sympathetic feelings, 109. Humming-bird, racket-shaped feathers

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

, and, as I have often seen, will shew off his finery before poultry, or even pigs.85 All naturalists who have closely attended to the habits of birds, whether in a state of nature or under confinement, are unanimously of opinion that the males take delight in displaying their beauty. Audubon frequently speaks of the male as endeavouring in various ways to charm the female. Mr. Gould, after describing some peculiarities in a male humming-bird, says he has no doubt that it has the power of

F948    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1877. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Twelfth thousand, revised and augmented. (final text). London: John Murray.   Text   PDF

.—This sense has been declared to be peculiar to man. I refer here only to the pleasure given by certain colours, forms, and sounds, and which may fairly be called a sense of the beautiful; with cultivated men such sensations are, however, intimately associated with complex ideas and trains of thought. When we behold a male bird elaborately displaying his graceful plumes or splendid colours before the female, whilst other birds, not thus decorated, make no such display, it is impossible to doubt