SEXUAL SELECTION. 77 



result is not death to the unsuccessful competitor, but few 

 or no offspring. Sexual selection is, therefore, less rigorous 

 than natural selection. Generally, the most vigorous males, 

 those which are best fitted for their places in nature, will 

 leave most progeny. But in many cases victory depends not 

 so much on general vigor, as on having special weapons, 

 confined to the male sex. A hornless stag or spurless cock 

 would have a poor chance of leaving numerous offspring. 

 (Sexual selection, by always allowing the victor to breed, 

 might surely give indomitable courage, length of spur, and 

 strength to the wing to strike in the spurred leg, in nearly 

 the same manner as does the brutal cockfighter by the care- 

 ful selection of his best cocks. How low in the scale of 

 nature the law of battle descends, I know not ; male alli- 

 gators have been described as fighting, bellowing, and whirl- 

 ing round, like Indians in a war-dance, for the possession of 

 the females ; male salmons have been observed fighting all 

 day long ; male stag beetles sometimes bear wounds from 

 the huge mandibles of other males ; the males of certain 

 hymenopterous insects have been frequently seen by that 

 inimitable observer M. Fabre, fighting for a particular 

 female who sits by, an apparently unconcerned beholder of 

 the struggle, and then retires with the conqueror. The war 

 is, perhaps, severest between the males of polygamous ani- 

 mals, and these seem oftenest provided with special weapons. 

 The males of carnivorous animals are already well armed ; 

 though to them and to others, special means of defence may 

 be given through means of sexual selection, as the mane of 

 the lion, and the hooked jaw to the male salmon ; for the 

 shield may be as important for victory as the sword or spear. 

 Among birds, the contest is often of a more peaceful 

 character. All those who have attended to the subject, 

 Delieve that there is the severest rivalry between the males 

 of many species to attract, by singing, the females. The 

 rock thrush of Guiana, birds of paradise, and some others, 

 congregate, and successive males display with the most 

 elaborate care, and show off in the best manner, their 

 gorgeous plumage ; they likewise perform strange antics 

 before the females, which, standing by as spectators, at last 

 choose the most attractive partner. Those who have closely 

 attended to birds in confinement well know that they often 

 take individual preferences and dislikes : thus Sir R. Heron 

 has described how a pied peacock was eminently attractive 

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