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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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eyes have been preserved or augmented<br />

through sexual selection in the males? This is<br />

very doubtful; for Mr. Bartlett shewed me in<br />

the Zoological Gardens that the inside <strong>of</strong> the<br />

mouth <strong>of</strong> this Buceros is black in the male and<br />

flesh-coloured in the female; and their external<br />

appearance or beauty would not be thus affected.<br />

I observed in Chile (46. 'Zoology <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Voyage <strong>of</strong> H.M.S. "Beagle,"' 1841, p. 6.) that the<br />

iris in the condor, when about a year old, is<br />

dark-brown, but changes at maturity into yellowish-brown<br />

in the male, and into bright red<br />

in the female. <strong>The</strong> male has also a small, longitudinal,<br />

leaden-coloured, fleshy crest or comb.<br />

<strong>The</strong> comb <strong>of</strong> many gallinaceous birds is highly<br />

ornamental, and assumes vivid colours during<br />

the act <strong>of</strong> courtship; but what are we to think <strong>of</strong><br />

the dull- coloured comb <strong>of</strong> the condor, which<br />

does not appear to us in the least ornamental?<br />

<strong>The</strong> same question may be asked in regard to<br />

various other characters, such as the knob on<br />

the base <strong>of</strong> the beak <strong>of</strong> the Chinese goose (An-

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