The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-06-08
IDAHO WORLD.

IDAHO WOR LII
ARTISTIC FEELING e THE LOWER AMI
MrxDarwin, in his last remarkable book,
sThe Descent of Man, ''has explained or OF
least partly explained, 70 bis own satisfaction;
the striking beauty Of the plumage OF birds and
the rich color of certain other creatures even
lower in the scnle.of Intelligence than birds, on
the principle that there has been among all
these orders of creatures sogreata preference
for beauty of exterior. that the more beautiful
and more eligible mates, than the less beautiful
in other words that ii has always been likely
that the more beautiful birds. etc. would pair
more easily, and rear greater number of off.
spfing than the less sbeautiful, and probably
also not only D greater number, but q greater
number Of more healthy ohspring,-the result
being, ofcNrse, after the lapse Of . vast num-
Der Of generati0ns,- to accumulate beauties on
the species. Mr.. Darwin gives most curious
illustration, by analysing the mode in which
rudimentary and less finished probably grow
into more elaborate and perfect beauties, in
the case of the Argus pheasant which is spot
ted with what is called perfect "ball-and,s sock
ct ocellus, an Intensely black circular ring
surrounding space shaded SO as exactly to
resemble ball." 1.-THE ring is always much
thickened. with the edge ill-defned, towards
the iefthnnd upper gcornerss. t.a. beneath
this thickenedE part there ID. on the surface of
the ball an obliqae, almost pure white mark,
which slides of downward into pale leaden
hue, and this into yellowish and brownish tints
which invariably become darker and darker
towatds the lower part of the ball. 1t is this
* IL. hfy, off. Of
light shining ona convex surface" Mr. OAR
win shows how this marvellous artistic effect
IS, obtained from the confluence and prolonga-
tons Of relatively very common spots-such
as occur in the feathers next the body-by ln-
sensible gradations. almost every minute
detail in the shape and coloring of the balland-
socket 0celli can be shown to follow from grad
ual changes of the elliptic ornaments, and the
development of the latter can be traced by
equally small steps from the union of two al
most simple spots, the lower one having some
dull fulvous shading on the upper side" But
to what cause are we to trace the development
Of these "aln0st simple spots. the lower one
having some dark fulyoas shading on the upper
side" into "ellptic ornaments" and the devel-
opment of the elliptic ornaments into perfect
'ball-and-sOcket ocelli?" Mr.. Darwin traces
it without hesitation to the strong preference
of the hen plleasantss for beauty of ylumage.
! n other words he supposes there was time
when all the cOck-pheasants were feathered
with common spotted feathers;- and that then
birds in which two adjoining spots had flowed
together into something like0ne of the elliptic
ornaments, would have been 30 much preferred
by hens to birds in which no such confluence Of
spots had taken place, that they would have the
choice of all the bellies of the pheasant society,
and the effect would be that their descendants |
who would inherit the tendency to confluence
of spots, would become a sort of arist0cracy |
among the Fheasants. and would command the
best mates; and that this process would go on |
till the complete development of the common !
spots into elliptic ornaments, ard of the clip
tic ornaments into ball-and-socket ocelli on
those feathers chiefly displayed by the Argus
pheasant, had taken pEice. This is very in
genius and possibly true account of the method
Ut thedeveopmeRt, "a precisely analogous one
il given, by the way 81. the development of the
vocal powers of singing birds,-for most
convincing evidence seems to be attanable of
the pride felt by birds in their rich plumage
aud their fine voices. and of the admiration
these are apt to excite In the breasts of their I
mates. Mr. Darwin tells curious story of
tho intense Jealousy felt BY robin for ali birds
with any red in their plumage (but no others)
and by quiet well-behaved bulfpch (Which
has black head) for reed-bunting which
has also black head, though to oil his other
comrades, except the one with a similar dis
tinction to his own, he was perfectly goodhu-
nored. The vexation evidently was primarily
Of the same nature which young lady would
feel at ball. on seeing splendid ball-dress.
precisely the duplicate of her own, on another
young lady, when she had persuaded herself
that she was unique There certainly seems
40 reason to doubt that birds are extremely
susceptible to the effect of beauty of plumage
md voice, aud are jealous of the same attrac-
tons in their rivals. But admitting Mr.. OAR
wins hypothesis, only conceive what refined
md finely developed taste 1t implies in these
birds, at once t0prefer those variations of plu-
mage and voice tending to perfect harmony of !
,fect-to what we call high art-to variations :
# . different kind, which would, according to |,
,ur standard of taste,, tend to vulgarity of eff.
ect. If we notice the preferences of the least :
classes Of civilized human beings in :,
'elation to color. the ordinary preferences
# English sailors or English aiaidservants, -
We might safely assume that they would not
'e directed towards perfect harmony of color 1,
Ind perfect grace Of form, but rather TO start =
ing and blOtchy effects in both color and form :,
3ut the splendidly colored snakes and birds of :
ropical forests, however grand their colors.
re never what our taste would call vulgarly
olored, never coarsely patched with frightful 4.
'atterEs, such as you constantly see Oh gaudy :.
owns, snowy wallpapers, and glaring carpets !"
(etif the tastes Of snakes and birds be not Of
wOnderfnlly delicate and cultivated charac- .
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