Chap XII.] FISHES. 15 



fatal to the efficiency of sexual selection ; for there could 

 be no choice of a partner. But, as far as is known, the 

 female never willingly spawns except in the close presence 

 of a male, and the male never fertilizes the ova except in 

 the close presence of a female. It is obviously difficult to 

 obtain direct evidence with respect to female fishes select- 

 ing their partners. An excellent observer, 24 who carefully 

 watched the spawning of minnows ( Cyprinus i^hoxiniis)^ 

 remarks that owing to the males, which were ten times as 

 numerous as the females, crowding closely round them, he 

 could " speak only doubtfully on their operations. When 

 a female came among a number of males they immediately 

 pursued her ; if she was not ready for shedding her spawn, 

 she made a precipitate retreat ; but if she was ready, she 

 came boldly in among them, and was immediately pressed 

 closely by a male on each side ; and when they had been 

 in that situation a short time, were superseded by other 

 two, who wedged themselves in between them and the 

 female, who appeared to treat all her lovers with the same 

 kindness." Notwithstanding this last statement, I can- 

 not, from the several previous considerations, give up the 

 belief that the males which are the most attractive to the 

 females, from their brighter colors or other ornaments, 

 are commonly preferred by them ; and that the males have 

 thus been rendered more beautiful in the course of ag^es. 



We have next to inquire whether this view can be ex- 

 tended, through the law of the equal transmission of char- 

 acters to both sexes, to those groups in which the males 

 and females are brilliant in the same or nearly the same 

 degree and manner. In such a genus as Labrus, which 

 includes some of the most splendid fishes in the world, for 

 instance, the Peacock Labrus (X. ^>«vo), described, 25 with 



2 -» Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. v. 1832, p. 681. 

 25 Bory de Saint-Vincent, in 'Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat.' torn. \s. 1826, 

 -). 151. 



