^80 ANIMAL COLORATION. 



to tights among themselves, frequently terminating in fatal 

 consequences particularly among such species as have spurs ; 

 they also indulge in curious antics the " love dances," which 

 have been so well described by Mr. W. H. Hudson, of many 

 South American species. Both the combats and the dances 

 are set down, by those who support the theory of sexual 

 selection, to the influence of the female. The favour of the 

 female is, it is supposed, gained by the victor in a combat, or 

 by the more graceful dancer. 



M. Stolzmann, on the contrary, believes that the duels 

 among the males have the primary result of reducing their 

 numbers ; hence the pugnacious disposition, the spurs, and all 

 the paraphernalia of warfare, have been cultivated by natural 

 selection, just as in the days of cock-fighting the same attri- 

 butes, mental and physical, were sedulously cultivated for a 

 nearly identical end by artificial selection. As to the dances and 

 the rival singing of male birds, this is not to lie regarded as 

 a peaceful strife to win the regard of the females, but merely a 

 distraction to protect the females against the too constant 

 attentions of the males. 



It cannot be doubted that this theory is among the most 

 ingenious, and that an array of facts, of which the above is only 

 a very small selection, support it. Granting the principal 

 fact upon which it rests is the great numerical superiority of 

 the males over the females, it would be difficult to dispute, 

 were it not almost impossible to believe in any theory which 

 ignores the deep-seated differences between the two sexes. 



Mr. Wallace's Views. 

 Mr. Wallace connects the greater brilliancy of such colora- 



O v 



tion, with the greater vigour and activity of that sex due to 

 " a surplus of vitality " exhibited in the combats, and amorous 



