More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II

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(425/3. Mr. Darwin wrote again to Mr. Shaw in April, 1866:--)

I am much obliged for your kind letter and all the great trouble which you
have taken in sending to all the various and interesting facts on birds
admiring themselves. I am very glad to hear of these facts. I have just
finished writing and adding to a new edition of the "Origin," and in this I
have given, without going into details (so that I shall not be able to use
your facts), some remarks on the subject of beauty.

LETTER 426. TO A.D. BARTLETT.
Down, February 16th [1867?]

I want to beg two favours of you. I wish to ascertain whether the Bower-
Bird discriminates colours. (426/1. Mr. Bartlett does not seem to have
supplied any information on the point in question. The evidence for the
Bower-Bird's taste in colour is in "Descent of Man," II., page 112.) Will
you have all the coloured worsted removed from the cage and bower, and then
put all in a row, at some distance from bower, the enclosed coloured
worsted, and mark whether the bird AT FIRST makes any selection. Each
packet contains an equal quantity; the packets had better be separate, and
each thread put separate, but close together; perhaps it would be fairest
if the several colours were put alternately--one thread of bright scarlet,
one thread of brown, etc., etc. There are six colours. Will you have the
kindness to tell me whether the birds prefer one colour to another?

Secondly, I very much want several heads of the fancy and long-domesticated
rabbits, to measure the capacity of skull. I want only small kinds, such
as Himalaya, small Angora, Silver Grey, or any small-sized rabbit which has
long been domesticated. The Silver Grey from warrens would be of little
use. The animals must be adult, and the smaller the breed the better. Now
when any one dies would you send me the carcase named; if the skin is of
any value it might be skinned, but it would be rather better with skin, and
I could make a present to any keeper to whom the skin is a perquisite.
This would be of great assistance to me, if you would have the kindness
thus to aid me.

LETTER 427. TO W.B. TEGETMEIER.

(427/1. We are not aware that the experiment here suggested has ever been
carried out.)

Down, March 5th [1867].

I write on the bare and very improbable chance of your being able to try,
or get some trustworthy person to try, the following little experiment.
But I may first state, as showing what I want, that it has been stated that
if two long feathers in the tail of the male Widow-Bird at the Cape of Good
Hope are pulled out, no female will pair with him.

Now, where two or three common cocks are kept, I want to know, if the tail
sickle-feathers and saddle-feathers of one which had succeeded in getting
wives were cut and mutilated and his beauty spoiled, whether he would
continue to be successful in getting wives. This might be tried with
drakes or peacocks, but no one would be willing to spoil for a season his
peacocks. I have no strength or opportunity of watching my own poultry,
otherwise I would try it. I would very gladly repay all expenses of loss
of value of the poultry, etc. But, as I said, I have written on the most
improbable chance of your interesting any one to make the trial, or having
time and inclination yourself to make it. Another, and perhaps better,
mode of making the trial would be to turn down to some hens two or three
cocks, one being injured in its plumage.

I am glad to say that I have begun correcting proofs. (427/2. "The
Variation of Animals and Plants.") I hope that you received safely the
skulls which you so kindly lent me.

LETTER 428. TO W.B. TEGETMEIER.
Down, March 30th [1867].

I am much obliged for your note, and shall be truly obliged if you will
insert any question on the subject. That is a capital remark of yours
about the trimmed game cocks, and shall be quoted by me. (428/1. "Descent
of Man," Edition I., Volume II., page 117. "Mr. Tegetmeier is convinced
that a game cock, though disfigured by being dubbed with his hackles
trimmed, would be accepted as readily as a male retaining all his natural
ornaments.") Nevertheless I am still inclined from many facts strongly to
believe that the beauty of the male bird determines the choice of the
female with wild birds, however it may be under domestication. Sir R.
Heron has described how one pied peacock was extra attentive to the hens.
This is a subject which I must take up as soon as my present book is done.

I shall be most particularly obliged to you if you will dye with magenta a
pigeon or two. (428/2. "Mr. Tegetmeier, at my request, stained some of
his birds with magenta, but they were not much noticed by the others."--
"Descent of Man" (1901), page 637.) Would it not be better to dye the tail
alone and crown of head, so as not to make too great difference? I shall
be very curious to hear how an entirely crimson pigeon will be received by
the others as well as his mate.

P.S.--Perhaps the best experiment, for my purpose, would be to colour a
young unpaired male and turn him with other pigeons, and observe whether he
was longer or quicker than usual in mating.

LETTER 429. TO A.R. WALLACE.
Down, April 29th [1867].

I have been greatly interested by your letter, but your view is not new to
me. (429/1. We have not been able to find Mr. Wallace's letter to which
this is a reply. It evidently refers to Mr. Wallace's belief in the
paramount importance of protection in the evolution of colour. This is
clear from the P.S. to the present letter and from the passages in the
"Origin" referred to. The first reference, Edition IV., page 240, is as
follows: "We can sometimes plainly see the proximate cause of the
transmission of ornaments to the males alone; for a pea-hen with the long
tail of the male bird would be badly fitted to sit on her eggs, and a coal-
black female capercailzie would be far more conspicuous on her nest, and
more exposed to danger, than in her present modest attire." The passages
in Edition I. (pages 89, 101) do not directly bear on the question of
protection.) If you will look at page 240 of the fourth edition of the
"Origin" you will find it very briefly given with two extreme examples of
the peacock and black grouse. A more general statement is given at page
101, or at page 89 of the first edition, for I have long entertained this
view, though I have never had space to develop it. But I had not
sufficient knowledge to generalise as far as you do about colouring and
nesting. In your paper perhaps you will just allude to my scanty remark in
the fourth edition, because in my Essay on Man I intend to discuss the
whole subject of sexual selection, explaining as I believe it does much
with respect to man. I have collected all my old notes, and partly written
my discussion, and it would be flat work for me to give the leading idea as
exclusively from you. But, as I am sure from your greater knowledge of
Ornithology and Entomology that you will write a much better discussion
than I could, your paper will be of great use to me. Nevertheless I must
discuss the subject fully in my Essay on Man. When we met at the
Zoological Society, and I asked you about the sexual differences in
kingfishers, I had this subject in view; as I had when I suggested to Bates
the difficulty about gaudy caterpillars, which you have so admirably (as I
believe it will prove) explained. (429/2. See a letter of February 26th,
1867, to Mr. Wallace, "Life and Letters" III., page 94.) I have got one
capital case (genus forgotten) of a [Australian] bird in which the female
has long tail-plumes, and which consequently builds a different nest from
all her allies. (429/3. Menura superba: see "Descent of Man" (1901),
page 687. Rhynchoea, mentioned a line or two lower down, is discussed in
the "Descent," page 727. The female is more brightly coloured than the
male, and has a convoluted trachea, elsewhere a masculine character. There
seems some reason to suppose that "the male undertakes the duty of
incubation.") With respect to certain female birds being more brightly
coloured than the males, and the latter incubating, I have gone a little
into the subject, and cannot say that I am fully satisfied. I remember
mentioning to you the case of Rhynchoea, but its nesting seems unknown. In
some other cases the difference in brightness seemed to me hardly
sufficiently accounted for by the principle of protection. At the Falkland
Islands there is a carrion hawk in which the female (as I ascertained by
dissection) is the brightest coloured, and I doubt whether protection will
here apply; but I wrote several months ago to the Falklands to make
enquiries. The conclusion to which I have been leaning is that in some of
these abnormal cases the colour happened to vary in the female alone, and
was transmitted to females alone, and that her variations have been
selected through the admiration of the male.

It is a very interesting subject, but I shall not be able to go on with it
for the next five or six months, as I am fully employed in correcting dull
proof-sheets. When I return to the work I shall find it much better done
by you than I could have succeeded in doing.

It is curious how we hit on the same ideas. I have endeavoured to show in
my MS. discussion that nearly the same principles account for young birds
not being gaily coloured in many cases, but this is too complex a point for
a note.

On reading over your letter again, and on further reflection, I do not
think (as far as I remember my words) that I expressed myself nearly
strongly enough on the value and beauty of your generalisation (429/4. See
Letter 203, Volume I.), viz., that all birds in which the female is
conspicuously or brightly coloured build in holes or under domes. I
thought that this was the explanation in many, perhaps most cases, but do
not think I should ever have extended my view to your generalisation.
Forgive me troubling you with this P.S.

LETTER 430. TO A.R. WALLACE.
Down, May 5th [1867].

The offer of your valuable notes is most generous, but it would vex me to
take so much from you, as it is certain that you could work up the subject
very much better than I could. Therefore I earnestly, and without any
reservation, hope that you will proceed with your paper, so that I return
your notes. You seem already to have well investigated the subject. I
confess on receiving your note that I felt rather flat at my recent work
being almost thrown away, but I did not intend to show this feeling. As a
proof how little advance I had made on the subject, I may mention that
though I had been collecting facts on the colouring, and other sexual
differences in mammals, your explanation with respect to the females had
not occurred to me. I am surprised at my own stupidity, but I have long
recognised how much clearer and deeper your insight into matters is than
mine. I do not know how far you have attended to the laws of inheritance,
so what follows may be obvious to you. I have begun my discussion on
sexual selection by showing that new characters often appear in one sex and
are transmitted to that sex alone, and that from some unknown cause such
characters apparently appear oftener in the male than in the female.
Secondly, characters may be developed and be confined to the male, and long
afterwards be transferred to the female. Thirdly, characters may arise in
either sex and be transmitted to both sexes, either in an equal or unequal
degree. In this latter case I have supposed that the survival of the
fittest has come into play with female birds and kept the female
dull-coloured. With respect to the absence of spurs in the female
gallinaceous birds, I presume that they would be in the way during
incubation; at least I have got the case of a German breed of fowls in
which the hens were spurred, and were found to disturb and break their eggs
much. With respect to the females of deer not having horns, I presume it
is to save the loss of organised matter. In your note you speak of sexual
selection and protection as sufficient to account for the colouring of all
animals, but it seems to me doubtful how far this will come into play with
some of the lower animals, such as sea anemones, some corals, etc., etc.
On the other hand Hackel (430/1. See "Descent of Man" (1901) page 402.)
has recently well shown that the transparency and absence of colour in the
lower oceanic animals, belonging to the most different classes, may be well
accounted for on the principle of protection.

Some time or other I should like much to know where your paper on the nests
of birds has appeared, and I shall be extremely anxious to read your paper
in the "Westminster Review." (430/2. "Westminster Review," July, 1867.)
Your paper on the sexual colouring of birds will, I have no doubt, be very
striking. Forgive me, if you can, for a touch of illiberality about your
paper.

LETTER 431. TO A.R. WALLACE.
March 19th, 1868.

(431/1. "The Variation of Animals and Plants" having been published on
January 30th, 1868, Mr. Darwin notes in his diary that on February 4th he
"Began on Man and Sexual Selection." He had already (in 1864 and 1867)
corresponded with Mr. Wallace on these questions--see for instance the
"Life and Letters," III., page 89; but, owing to various interruptions,
serious work on the subject did not begin until 1869. The following
quotations show the line of work undertaken early in 1868.

Mr. Wallace wrote (March 19th, 1868): "I am glad you have got good
materials on sexual selection. It is no doubt a difficult subject. One
difficulty to me is, that I do not see how the constant MINUTE variations,
which are sufficient for Natural Selection to work with, could be SEXUALLY
selected. We seem to require a series of bold and abrupt variations. How
can we imagine that an inch in the tail of the peacock, or 1/4-inch in that
of the Bird of Paradise, would be noticed and preferred by the female.")

In regard to sexual selection. A girl sees a handsome man, and without
observing whether his nose or whiskers are the tenth of an inch longer or
shorter than in some other man, admires his appearance and says she will
marry him. So, I suppose, with the pea-hen; and the tail has been
increased in length merely by, on the whole, presenting a more gorgeous
appearance. J. Jenner Weir, however, has given me some facts showing that
birds apparently admire details of plumage.

LETTER 432. TO F. MULLER.
March 28th [1868].

I am particularly obliged to you for your observations on the stridulation
of the two sexes of Lamellicorns. (432/1. We are unable to find any
mention of F. Muller's observations on this point; but the reference is
clearly to Darwin's observations on Necrophorus and Pelobius, in which the
stridulating rasp was bigger in the males in the first individuals
examined, but not so in succeeding specimens. "Descent of Man," Edition
II., Volume I., page 382.) I begin to fear that I am completely in error
owing to that common cause, viz. mistaking at first individual variability
for sexual difference.

I go on working at sexual selection, and, though never idle, I am able to
do so little work each day that I make very slow progress. I knew from
Azara about the young of the tapir being striped, and about young deer
being spotted (432/2. Fritz Muller's views are discussed in the "Descent
of Man," Edition II., Volume II., page 305.); I have often reflected on
this subject, and know not what to conclude about the loss of the stripes
and spots. From the geographical distribution of the striped and unstriped
species of Equus there seems to be something very mysterious about the loss
of stripes; and I cannot persuade myself that the common ass has lost its
stripes owing to being rendered more conspicuous from having stripes and
thus exposed to danger.

LETTER 433. TO J. JENNER WEIR.

(433/1. Mr. John Jenner Weir, to whom the following letters are addressed,
is frequently quoted in the "Descent of Man" as having supplied Mr. Darwin
with information on a variety of subjects.)

Down, February 27th [1868].

I must thank you for your paper on apterous lepidoptera (433/2. Published
by the West Kent Natural History, Microscopical and Photographic Society,
Greenwich, 1867. Mr. Weir's paper seems chiefly to have interested Mr.
Darwin as affording a good case of gradation in the degree of degradation
of the wings in various species.), which has interested me exceedingly, and
likewise for the very honourable mention which you make of my name. It is
almost a pity that your paper was not published in some Journal in which it
would have had a wider distribution. It contained much that was new to me.
I think the part about the relation of the wings and spiracles and tracheae
might have been made a little clearer. Incidentally, you have done me a
good service by reminding me of the rudimentary spurs on the legs of the
partridge, for I am now writing on what I have called sexual selection. I
believe that I am not mistaken in thinking that you have attended much to
birds in confinement, as well as to insects. If you could call to mind any
facts bearing on this subject, with birds, insects, or any animals--such as
the selection by a female of any particular male--or conversely of a
particular female by a male, or on the rivalry between males, or on the
allurement of the females by the males, or any such facts, I should be most
grateful for the information, if you would have the kindness to communicate
it.

P.S.--I may give as instance of [this] class of facts, that Barrow asserts
that a male Emberiza (?) at the Cape has immensely long tail-feathers
during the breeding season (433/3. Barrow describes the long tail feathers
of Emberiza longicauda as enduring "but the season of love." "An Account
of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa": London, 1801, Volume I.,
page 244.); and that if these are cut off, he has no chance of getting a
wife. I have always felt an intense wish to make analogous trials, but
have never had an opportunity, and it is not likely that you or any one
would be willing to try so troublesome an experiment. Colouring or
staining the fine red breast of a bullfinch with some innocuous matter into
a dingy tint would be an analogous case, and then putting him and ordinary
males with a female. A friend promised, but failed, to try a converse
experiment with white pigeons--viz., to stain their tails and wings with
magenta or other colours, and then observe what effect such a prodigious
alteration would have on their courtship. (433/4. See Letter 428.) It
would be a fairer trial to cut off the eyes of the tail-feathers of male
peacocks; but who would sacrifice the beauty of their bird for a whole
season to please a mere naturalist?

LETTER 434. TO J. JENNER WEIR.
Down, February 29th [1868].

I have hardly ever received a note which has interested me more than your
last; and this is no exaggeration. I had a few cases of birds perceiving
slight changes in the dress of their owners, but your facts are of tenfold
value. I shall certainly make use of them, and need not say how much
obliged I should be for any others about which you feel confident.

Do you know of any birds besides some of the gallinaceae which are
polygamous? Do you know of any birds besides pigeons, and, as it is said,
the raven, which pair for their whole lives?

Many years ago I visited your brother, who showed me his pigeons and gave
me some valuable information. Could you persuade him (but I fear he would
think it high treason) to stain a male pigeon some brilliant colour, and
observe whether it excited in the other pigeons, especially the females,
admiration or contempt?

For the chance of your liking to have a copy and being able to find some
parts which would interest you, I have directed Mr. Murray to send you my
recent book on "Variation under Domestication."

P.S.--I have somewhere safe references to cases of magpies, of which one of
a pair has been repeatedly (I think seven times) killed, and yet another
mate was always immediately found. (434/1. On this subject see "Descent
of Man," Edition I., Volume II., page 104, where Mr. Weir's observations
were made use of. This statement is quoted from Jenner ("Phil. Trans."
1824) in the "Descent of Man" (1901), page 620.) A gamekeeper told me
yesterday of analogous case. This perplexes me much. Are there many
unmarried birds? I can hardly believe it. Or will one of a pair, of which
the nest has been robbed, or which are barren, always desert his or her
mate for a strange mate with the attraction of a nest, and in one instance
with young birds in the nest? The gamekeeper said during breeding season
he had never observed a single or unpaired partridge. How can the sexes be
so equally matched?

P.S. 2nd.--I fear you will find me a great bore, but I will be as
reasonable as can be expected in plundering one so rich as you.

P.S. 3rd.--I have just received a letter from Dr. Wallace (434/2. See
"Descent of Man," Edition I., Volume I., pages 386-401, where Dr. Wallace's
observations are quoted.), of Colchester, about the proportional numbers of
the two sexes in Bombyx; and in this note, apropos to an incidental remark
of mine, he stoutly maintains that female lepidoptera never notice the
colours or appearance of the male, but always receive the first male which
comes; and this appears very probable. He says he has often seen fine
females receive old battered and pale-tinted males. I shall have to admit
this very great objection to sexual selection in insects. His observations
no doubt apply to English lepidoptera, in most of which the sexes are
alike. The brimstone or orange-tip would be good to observe in this
respect, but it is hopelessly difficult. I think I have often seen several
males following one female; and what decides which male shall succeed? How
is this about several males; is it not so?

LETTER 435. TO J. JENNER WEIR.
6, Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, W. [March 6th, 1868].

I have come here for a few weeks, for a little change and rest. Just as I
was leaving home I received your first note, and yesterday a second; and
both are most interesting and valuable to me. That is a very curious
observation about the goldfinch's beak (435/1. "Descent of Man," Edition
I., Volume I., page 39. Mr. Weir is quoted as saying that the birdcatchers
can distinguish the males of the goldfinch, Carduelis elegans, by their
"slightly longer beaks."), but one would hardly like to trust it without
measurement or comparison of the beaks of several male and female birds;
for I do not understand that you yourself assert that the beak of the male
is sensibly longer than that of the female. If you come across any acute
birdcatchers (I do not mean to ask you to go after them), I wish you would
ask what is their impression on the relative numbers of the sexes of any
birds which they habitually catch, and whether some years males are more
numerous and some years females. I see that I must trust to analogy (an
unsafe support) for sexual selection in regard to colour in butterflies.
You speak of the brimstone butterfly and genus Edusa (435/2. Colias
Edusa.) (I forget what this is, and have no books here, unless it is
Colias) not opening their wings. In one of my notes to Mr. Stainton I
asked him (but he could or did not answer) whether butterflies such as the
Fritillaries, with wings bright beneath and above, opened and shut their
wings more than Vanessae, most of which, I think, are obscure on the under
surface. That is a most curious observation about the red underwing moth
and the robin (435/3. "Descent of Man," Edition I., Volume I., page 395.
Mr. Weir describes the pursuit of a red-underwing, Triphoena pronuba, by a
robin which was attracted by the bright colour of the moth, and constantly
missed the insect by breaking pieces off the wing instead of seizing the
body. Mr. Wallace's facts are given on the same page.), and strongly
supports a suggestion (which I thought hardly credible) of A.R. Wallace,
viz. that the immense wings of some exotic lepidoptera served as a
protection from difficulty of birds seizing them. I will probably quote
your case.

No doubt Dr. Hooker collected the Kerguelen moth, for I remember he told me
of the case when I suggested in the "Origin," the explanation of the
coleoptera of Madeira being apterous; but he did not know what had become
of the specimens.

I am quite delighted to hear that you are observing coloured birds (435/4.
"Descent of Man," Edition I., Volume II., page 110.), though the
probability, I suppose, will be that no sure result will be gained. I am
accustomed with my numerous experiments with plants to be well satisfied if
I get any good result in one case out of five.

You will not be able to read all my book--too much detail. Some of the
chapters in the second volume are curious, I think. If any man wants to
gain a good opinion of his fellow-men, he ought to do what I am doing,
pester them with letters.