296 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAMMALS. Part IL 



" we have instinct excited by mere colonr, which had 

 " so strong; an effect as to s^et the better of eA^ery- 

 " thing else. Bat the male did not require this, the 

 "female beins; an animal somewhat similar to himself, 

 " was sufficient to rouse him."^^ 



In an early cliapter we have seen that the mental 

 powers of the higher animals do not differ in kind, 

 though so greatly in degree, from the corresponding 

 powers of man, especially of the lower and barbarous 

 races ; and it would appear that even their taste for the 

 beautiful is not ^^idely different from that of the Quad- 

 rumana. As the negro of Africa raises the flesh on his 

 face into parallel ridges " or cicatrices, high above the 

 " natural surface, which unsightly deformities, are con- 

 " sidered great personal attractions ; " ^* — as negroes, as 

 well as savages in many parts of the world, paint their 

 faces with red, blue, white, or black bars, — so the 

 male mandrill of Africa appears to have acquired his 

 deeply -furrowed and gaudily-coloured face from having 

 been thus rendered attractive to the female. No doubt 

 it is to us a most grotesque notion that the posterior 

 end of the body should have been coloured for the 

 sake of ornament even more brilliantly than the face ; 

 but this is really not more strange than that the 

 tails of many birds should have been especially de- 

 corated. 



With mammals we do not at present possess any evi- 

 dence that the males take pains to display their charms 

 before the female ; and the elaborate manner in wdiich 

 this is performed by male birds, is the strongest argu- 

 ment in favour of the belief that the females admire, 



22 'Essays and Observations by J. Hunter,' edited by Owen, 1861, 

 vol. i. p. 194. 



2* Sir S. Baker, ' The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,' 1867. 



