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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
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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
same species in other characters; and these have been seized on by man and much augmented—as shewn by the tail of the fantail-pigeon, the hood of the jacobin, the beak and wattle of the carrier, and so forth. The sole difference between these cases is that in the one, the result is due to man's selection, whilst in the other, as with humming-birds, birds of paradise, c., it is due to the selection by the females of the more beautiful males. I will mention only one other bird, remarkable from
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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
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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
discover flowers by colour. The Humming-bird Sphinx may often be seen to swoop down from a distance on a bunch of flowers in the midst of green foliage; and I have been assured by two persons abroad, that these moths repeatedly visit flowers painted on the walls of a room, and vainly endeavour to insert their proboscis into them. Fritz Müller informs me that several kinds of butterflies in S. Brazil shew an unmistakable preference for certain colours over others: he observed that they very often
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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
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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
Besides these there were several newly-picked leaves and young shoots of a pinkish colour, the whole shewing a decided taste for the beautiful. Well may Mr. Gould say, that these highly decorated halls of assembly must be regarded as the most wonderful instances of bird-architecture yet discovered; and the taste, as we see, of the several species certainly differs.16 Preference for particular Males by the Females.—Having made these preliminary remarks on the discrimination and taste of birds
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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
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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
collar; or in the male having a black collar instead of a yellow demi-collar in front, with a pale roseate instead of a plum-blue head.55 As so many male birds have elongated tail-feathers or elongated crests for their chief ornament, the shortened tail, formerly described in the male of a humming-bird, and the shortened crest of the male goosander, seem like one of the many changes of fashion which we admire in our own dresses. Some members of the heron family offer a still more curious case
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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
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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
hairlessness, 602. Sperm-whales, battles of male, 500. Sphingidæ, coloration of the, 314. Sphinx, Humming-bird, 317. —, Mr. Bates on the caterpillar of a, 325. — moth, musky odour of, 308. Spiders, 272; parental feeling in, 106; male, more active than female, 221; proportion of the sexes in, 254; secondary sexual characters of, 272; courtship of male, 273; attracted by music, 273; male, small size of, 273. Spilosoma menthastri, rejected by turkeys, 316. Spine, alteration of, to suit the erect
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CUL-DAR209.4.177    Draft:    [1877].10.17--[1877].10.22   Pharbitis Convolvulus / Descent of man, vol. 1.   Text   Image
, so that partial migration may have occurred, for and the flocks at this period often consist of hens alone. Mr. Salvin paid particular attention to the sexes of the Humming birds which he collected in Central America, and is convinced that with most of the species the males are in excess; thus one year he procured 204 specimens belonging to ten species, and these consisted of 166 males and of 38 females. With two other species the females were in excess: but the proportions apparently vary either
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F1251    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1878. The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. 2d ed. 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
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F1319    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1879. Preliminary notice. In Krause, E., Erasmus Darwin. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF
of the flowers of many orchids to insects could be best explained by a sort of mimicry. His idea, which was very ingenious although fallacious, was that they had acquired the aspect of flowers already occupied by insects in order to be protected from the visits of lovers of honey. Thus the flowers of the Fly-Ophrys resemble a small wall-bee (Apis ichneumonea) so closely that at a small distance they appear to be already occupied; and a South-American Cypripedium even resembles the bird
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F1319    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1879. Preliminary notice. In Krause, E., Erasmus Darwin. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF
their concealing or defending their honey from insects, and their seeds from birds. On the other hand, swiftness of wing has been acquired by hawks and swallows to pursue their prey; and a proboscis of admirable structure has been acquired by the bee, the moth, and the humming bird, for the purpose of plundering the nectaries of flowers. All which seem to have been formed by the original living filament, excited into action by the necessities of the creatures, which possess them, and on which
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A1016    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1880. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. London: Macmillan & Co.   Text
the Himalayas there are numbers of birds which have very restricted ranges, but those of the Neilgherries are perhaps better known, several species of laughing thrushes and some other birds being found only on the summits of these mountains. The most wonderfully restricted ranges are, however, to be found among the humming-birds of tropical America. The great volcanic peaks of Chimborazo and Pichincha have each a peculiar species of humming-bird confined to a belt just below the limits of
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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 Aïthurus polytmus, a humming-bird, the male is
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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 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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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
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F1416    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. [Extracts from Darwin's draft chapter 10 of Natural selection]. In Romanes, G. J., Animal intelligence. London: Kegan Paul Trench & Co.   Text   Image   PDF
struction of its cells), but also ramifies into a number of diverse directions. Thus we have, in different species, wide open networks spread between the branches of bushes, c., closely woven textures in the corners of buildings, earth tubes lined with silk, the strong muslin-like snare of the Mygale, which, as first noticed by Madame Merian,1 and since confirmed by Bates,2 is able to retain a struggling humming-bird while this most beautiful animal in creation is being devoured by the most
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF
same species in other characters; and these have been seized on by man and much augmented—as shewn by the tail of the fantail-pigeon, the hood of the jacobin, the beak and wattle of the carrier, and so forth. The sole difference between these cases is that in the one, the result is due to man's selection, whilst in the other, as with humming-birds, birds of paradise, c., it is due to the selection by the females of the more beautiful males. I will mention only one other bird, remarkable from
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F1416    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. [Extracts from Darwin's draft chapter 10 of Natural selection]. In Romanes, G. J., Animal intelligence. London: Kegan Paul Trench & Co.   Text   Image   PDF
., on instincts of young alligator, 256 Barton, Dr., on alleged fascination by snakes, 264 Bastian, on termites, 198 Bates, on ants' habit of keeping pets, 84; cleaning one another, 87; play and leisure, 88, 89; leaf-cutting, 93-95; tunnelling, 99; ecitons, 114-21; on sand-wasp taking bearings to remember precise locality, 150; mygale eating humming-birds, 208; on nidification of small crustacean, 232, 233; habits of turtles, and alligators, 257, 258; intelligence of vultures, 314; bats sucking
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F1416    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. [Extracts from Darwin's draft chapter 10 of Natural selection]. In Romanes, G. J., Animal intelligence. London: Kegan Paul Trench & Co.   Text   Image   PDF
Forbes, on nidification of tailor-bird, 293 Forbes, James, on monkey begging for dead body of companion, 472 Forel, on ants; recognising slaves, 43; and fellow-citizens, 44; swarming habits, 58; experiment in rearing together hostile species, 59, 60; tunnelling to obtain aphides, 61; warfare, 68-77; play, 88; intelligence shown in architecture, 129 Forsteal, on termites, 198 Forster, W., on intelligence of a bull, 338 Fothergill, Percival, on reasoning power of a dog, 466 Fouillouse, J. de, on
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F1416    Book contribution:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. [Extracts from Darwin's draft chapter 10 of Natural selection]. In Romanes, G. J., Animal intelligence. London: Kegan Paul Trench & Co.   Text   Image   PDF
, 134; my-gale eating humming birds, 208; climbing-perch, 249; sexual affection of cobra, 246: snake-charming, 264, 265; taming of cobra, 265; nidification of baya-bird, 294; combined action of crows, 319, 320; of buffaloes, 335; use of tame buffalo, 335; on emotions and intelligence of elephant, 389, 390, 393-6, 400-8; collective instinct of jackals, 432, 433 Tepper, Mr. Otto, on intelligence of a cat, 424 Termites, 198-203; architecture, 198, 199, and 201, 202; workers and soldiers, 200,201
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF
discover flowers by colour. The Humming-bird Sphinx may often be seen to swoop down from a distance on a bunch of flowers in the midst of green foliage; and I have been assured by two persons abroad, that these moths repeatedly visit flowers painted on the walls of a room, and vainly endeavour to insert their proboscis into them. Fritz Müller informs me that several kinds of butterflies in S. Brazil shew an unmistakable preference for certain colours over others: he observed that they very often
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF
Besides these there were several newly-picked leaves and young shoots of a pinkish colour, the whole shewing a decided taste for the beautiful. Well may Mr. Gould say, that these highly decorated halls of assembly must be regarded as the most wonderful instances of bird-architecture yet discovered; and the taste, as we see, of the several species certainly differs.16 Preference for particular Males by the Females.—Having made these preliminary remarks on the discrimination and taste of birds
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth 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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF
collar; or in the male having a black collar instead of a yellow demi-collar in front, with a pale roseate instead of a plum-blue head.55 As so many male birds have elongated tail-feathers or elongated crests for their chief ornament, the shortened tail, formerly described in the male of a humming-bird, and the shortened crest of the male goosander, seem like one of the many changes of fashion which we admire in our own dresses. Some members of the heron family offer a still more curious case
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   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
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F955    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1882. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. 2d ed., fifteenth thousand.   Text   Image   PDF
hairlessness, 602. Sperm-whales, battles of male, 500. Sphingidæ, coloration of the, 314. Sphinx, Humming-bird, 317. —, Mr. Bates on the caterpillar of a, 325. — moth, musky odour of, 308. Spiders, 272; parental feeling in, 106; male, more active than female, 221; proportion of the sexes in, 254; secondary sexual characters of, 272; courtship of male, 273; attracted by music, 273; male, small size of, 273. Spilosoma menthastri, rejected by turkeys, 316. Spine, alteration of, to suit the erect
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A254    Book:     Allen, Grant. 1885. Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton.   Text   Image
with the special season for the selection of mates. In the spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to have carried
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F1452.3    Book:     Darwin, Francis ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. vol. 3. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF
humming birds which would not fertilize it, and to facilitate the access of the little proboscis of the humble bee, which would do so; whilst, on the other hand, the long pendent tube and flexible valve-like corona which retains the nectar of Tacsonia would shut out the bee, which would not, and admit the humming bird which would, fertilize that flower. The suggestion is very possibly worthless, and could only be verified or refuted by examination of flowers in the countries where they grow naturally
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F1452.3    Book:     Darwin, Francis ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. vol. 3. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF
to me extremely clever, like everything I have read of his; but I am not shaken perhaps you will say that neither gods nor men could shake me. I demur to the Duke reiterating his objection that the brilliant plumage of the male humming-bird could not have been acquired through selection, at the same time entirely ignoring my discussion (p. 93, 3rd edition) on beautiful plumage being acquired through sexual selection. The Duke may think this insufficient, but that is another question. All
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F1452.3    Book:     Darwin, Francis ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. vol. 3. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF
of differences for mere variety or beauty. It may be confidently said that no tribe of plants presents such grotesque and beautiful differences, which no one until lately, conjectured were of any use; but now in almost every case I have been able to show their important service. It should be remembered that with humming-birds or orchids, a modification in one part will cause correlated changes in other parts. I agree with what you say about beauty. I formerly thought a good deal on the subject
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A1015    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co.   Text
Chile, where humming-birds are especially plentiful, we find great numbers of red tubular flowers, often of large size and apparently adapted to these little creatures. Such are the beautiful Lapageria and Philesia, the grand Pitcairneas, and the genera Fuchsia, Mitraria, Embothrium, Escallonia, Desfontainea, Eccremocarpus, and many Gesnerace . Among the most extraordinary modifications of flower structure adapted to bird fertilisation are the species of Marcgravia, in which the pedicels and
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A1015    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co.   Text
Entomological Society) 251 26. MYGNIMIA AVICULUS AND COLOBORHOMBUS FASCIATIPENNIS 259 27. MIMICKING INSECTS FROM THE PHILIPPINES (from Semper's Animal Life) 260 28. MALVA SYLVESTRIS AND M. ROTUNDIFOLIA (from Lubbock's British Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects) 311 29. LYTHRUM SALICARIA, THREE FORMS OF (from Lubbock's British Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects) 312 30. ORCHIS PYRAMIDALIS (from Darwin's Fertilisation of Orchids) 314 31. HUMMING-BIRD FERTILISING MARCGRAVIA NEPENTHOIDES 320 32. DIAGRAM OF
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A1015    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co.   Text
or breast-shields in the males of birds with accessory plumes may be partly due to selection, because they must serve as a protection in their mutual combats, just as does the lion's or the horse's mane. The enormously lengthened plumes of the bird of paradise and of the peacock can, however, have no such use, 1 For activity and pugnacity of humming-birds, see Tropical Nature, pp. 130, 213. [page] 29
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A1015    Book:     Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co.   Text
selection. The same remark will apply to the peculiar calls of birds, and even to the singing of the males. These may well have originated merely as a means of recognition between the two sexes of a species, and as an invitation from the male to the female bird. When the individuals of a species are widely scattered, such a call must be of great importance in enabling pairing to take place as early as possible, and thus the clearness, loudness, and individuality of the song becomes a useful character
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