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The Descent of Man

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on habit and partly on a love <strong>of</strong> novelty, there<br />

seems no improbability in animals admiring for<br />

a very long period the same general style <strong>of</strong><br />

ornamentation or other attractions, and yet<br />

appreciating slight changes in colours, form, or<br />

sound.<br />

SUMMARY OF THE FOUR CHAPTERS ON<br />

BIRDS.<br />

Most male birds are highly pugnacious during<br />

the breeding-season, and some possess weapons<br />

adapted for fighting with their rivals. But<br />

the most pugnacious and the best armed males<br />

rarely or never depend for success solely on<br />

their power to drive away or kill their rivals,<br />

but have special means for charming the female.<br />

With some it is the power <strong>of</strong> song, or <strong>of</strong> giving<br />

forth strange cries, or instrumental music,<br />

and the males in consequence differ from the<br />

females in their vocal organs, or in the structure<br />

<strong>of</strong> certain feathers. From the curiously diversi-

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