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

sitting, 151; supposed to be a kind of 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 inferior vitality 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

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

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

can be detected long before the bird can be seen.2 On the whole, birds appear to be the most æsthetic of all animals, excepting of course man, and they have nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have. This is shewn by our enjoyment of the singing of birds, and by our women, both civilised and savage, decking their heads with borrowed plumes, and using gems which are hardly more brilliantly coloured than the naked skin and wattles of certain birds. In man, however, when cultivated, the

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

, 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 fish-like 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

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

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

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

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

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

certain emotions, as of anger, by the tone of their humming; and according to H. Müller (p. 80), the males of some species make a peculiar singing noise whilst pursuing the females. 61 M. Perrier in his article 'la Sélection sexuelle d'après 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

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

, 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

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

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

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

muscles in man, 3; snarling muscles, 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; Lampridæ distasteful to mammals, 277

CUL-DAR133.18.1    Printed:    1877.09.00   The colours of animals and plants I `Macmillan's Magazine' 36: 384-408   Text   Image   PDF

humming bird of its jewelled breast, except to add the final touches to a world-picture, calculated at once to please and to refine mankind? And even now, with all our recently acquired knowledge of this subject, who shall say that these old-world views were not intrinsically and fundamentally sound; and that, although we now know that colour has uses in nature that we little dreamt of, yet the relation of those colours to our senses and emotions may be another, and perhaps more important use which

CUL-DAR133.18.1    Printed:    1877.09.00   The colours of animals and plants I `Macmillan's Magazine' 36: 384-408   Text   Image   PDF

mode of action of the general principles of colour-development among animals, we have an excellent example in the humming-birds. Of all birds these are at once the smallest, the most active, and the fullest of vital energy. When poised in the air their wings are invisible, owing to the rapidity of their motion, and when startled they dart away with the rapidity of a flash of light. Such active creatures would not be an easy prey to any rapacious bird; and if one at length was captured, the morsel

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

conspicuous on the wing. Again, the elegant frill-necked Lophornis ornatus is very pugnacious, erecting its crest, throwing out its whiskers and attacking every humming-bird that may pass within its range of vision; and of another species L. magnificus, it is said that it is so bold that the sight of man creates no alarm. The beautifully-coloured Thaumastura Cora rarely permits any other humming-bird to remain in its neighbourhood, but wages a continual and terrible war upon them. The

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

Sexual selection not a cause of colour, 198 neutralized by natural selection, 210 Sickle-bill humming-bird, 136 Size, correspondence of, in tropical flowers and insects, 236 Sky, colour of not mentioned in old books, 245 Smith, Mr. Worthington, on mimicry in fungi, 223 Smyth, Professor Piazzi, on the Great Pyramid, 298 Snakes, 114 Sobralias, 51 Soil, heat of, 8 influence of temperature on climate, 8 Solenopsis, genus of ants, 84 Sorby, Mr., on composition of chlorophyll, 221 South America

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

lichen, the body of the nest being formed of cottony substances and the inside lined with the finest and most silky fibres. Others suspend their nests to creepers hanging over water, or even over the sea; and the Pichincha humming-bird once attached its nest to a straw-rope hanging from the roof of a shed. Others again build nests of a hammock-form attached to the face of rocks by spiders' web; while the little forest-haunting species fasten their nests to the points or to the under-sides of

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

, 330 Neotropical region, mammalia of, 331 birds of, 332 Nests of humming-birds, 137 Newton, Professor, on appearance of living humming-birds, 130 New Zealand, poor in flowers and injects, 235 New World, regions of the, 329 North American earth-works, 292 Nuttall, Mr. on the rufous flame-bearer, 131 Nymphalidæ, local resemblances of species of distinct genera of, 257 O. OCEANIC ISLANDS, peculiar floras of, 269 theory of, 307 Odontomachus, genus of ants, 82 Odour deficient in New Zealand flowers

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

invent appropriate English names for the more beautiful and remarkable genera. Hence we find in common use such terms as Sun-gems, Sun-stars, Hill-stars, Wood-stars, Sun-angels, Star-throats, Comets, Coquettes, Flame-bearers, Sylphs, and Fairies; together with many others derived from the character of the tail or the crests. The Motions and Habits of Humming-birds. Let us now consider briefly, the peculiarities of flight, the motions, the food, the nests, and general habits of the humming-birds

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

of butterflies, 78 on leaf-cutting ants, 86 on blind ants, 88 on bird-catching spider, 97 on use of toucan's bill, 106 on large serpents, 115 on the habits of humming-birds, 132 [page] 35

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

by humming-birds in North America; so that there can, I think, be little doubt that birds play a much more important part in this respect than has hitherto been imagined. It is not improbable that in Tropical America, where the humming-bird family is so enormously developed, many flowers will be found to be expressly adapted to fertilization by them, just as so many in our own country are specially adapted to the visits of certain families or genera of insects.1 It must also be remembered, as Mr

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

The bill differs greatly in length and shape, being either straight or gently curved, in some species bent like a sickle, in others turned up like the bill of the avoset. It is usually long and slender, but in one group is so enormously developed that it is nearly the same length as the rest of the bird. The legs, usually little seen, are in some groups adorned with globular tufts of white, brown, or black down, a peculiarity possessed by no other birds. The reader will now be in a position to

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

other forms whose food and habits were similar, or which in any way impinged upon its sphere of existence. We may, therefore, assume that the Chilian humming-bird which migrated to Juan Fernandez was a stable form, hardly if at all different from the existing species which is termed Eustephanus galeritus. On the island it met with very changed but highly favourable conditions, an abundant shrubby vegetation and a tolerably rich flora; less extremes of climate than on the mainland; and, most

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

greater need for protection by the male bird while incubating; to which Mr. Darwin has objected that the difference is not sufficient, and is not always so distributed as to be most effective for this purpose; and he believes that it is due to reversed sexual selection, that is, to the female taking the usual r le of the male, and being chosen for her brighter tints. We have already seen reason for rejecting this latter theory in every case; and I also admit that Mr. Darwin's criticism is sound

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

huge bills, as well as their habits of perching on the top of bare or isolated trees, render them very conspicuous objects. The Picariæ comprise many other interesting families; as, for example, the puff-birds, the todies, and the humming-birds; but as these are all confined to America we can hardly claim them as characteristic of the tropics generally. Others, though very abundant in the tropics, like the kingfishers and the goatsuckers, are too well known in temperate lands to allow of their

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

the body. The feathers of birds are by no means set uniformly over their skin, but grow in certain definite lines and patches, which vary considerably in shape and size in the more important orders and tribes, while the mode of arrangement agrees in all which are known to be closely related to each other; and thus the form of the feather-tracts or the pterylography as it is termed, of a bird, is a valuable aid in doubtful cases of affinity. Now, if we apply these three tests to the humming-birds

CUL-DAR.LIB.655    Printed:    1878   Tropical nature and other essays. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text

comparatively simple case of the action of the laws of variation and natural selection, it will be instructive to see if we can picture to ourselves the process by which the changes have been brought about. We must first go back to an unknown but rather remote period, just before any humming-birds had reached these islands. At that time a species of this peculiar genus, Eustephanus, must have inhabited Chili; but we must not be sure that it was identically the same as that which is now found there