Chap. VIII. SEXUAL SELECTION. 273 



The female, on the other hand, with the rarest excep- 

 tion, is less eager than the male. As the illustrious 

 Hunter 13 long ago observed, she generally " requires to 

 " be courted ; " she is coy, and may often be seen en- 

 deavouring for a long time to escape from the male. 

 Everv one who has attended to the habits of animals 



af 



will be able to call to mind instances of this kind. 

 Judging from various facts, hereafter to be given, and 

 from the results which may fairly be attributed to 

 sexual selection, the female, though comparatively 

 passive, generally exerts some choice and accepts one 

 male in preference to others. Or she may accept, as 

 appearances would sometimes lead us to believe, not 

 the male which is the most attractive to her, but the 

 one which is the least distasteful. The exertion of 

 some choice on the part of the female seems almost as 

 general a law as the eagerness of the male. 



We are naturally led to enquire why the male in so 

 many and such widely distinct classes has been ren- 

 dered more easrer than the female, so that he searches 

 for her and plays the more active part in courtship. 

 It would be no advantage and some loss of power if 

 both sexes were mutually to search for each other ; but 

 why should the male almost always be the seeker ? 

 With plants, the ovules after fertilisation have to be 

 nourished for a time ; hence the pollen is necessarily 

 brought to the female organs — being placed on the 

 stigma, through the agency of insects or of the wind, 



has rudimentary wings, and never quits the cell in which it is born, 

 whilst the female has well-developed wings. "- Audouin believes that 

 the females are impregnated by the males which are born in the same 

 cells with them ; but it is much more probable that the females visit 

 other cells, and thus avoid close interbreeding. We shall hereafter 

 meet with a few exceptional cases, in various classes, in which the 

 female, instead of the male, is the seeker and wooer. 



13 ' Essays and Observations,' edited by Owen, vol. i. 1861, p. 194. 



VOL. I. T 



