222 The Descent of Man. Part II. 



The female, on the other hand, with the rarest exceptions, is 

 lesa eager than the male. As the illustrious Hunter 20 long ago 

 observed, she generally " requires to be courted ;" she is coy, and 

 may often be seen endeavouring for a long time to escape from 

 the male. Every observer of the habits of animals will be able 

 to call to mind instances of this kind. It is shown by various 

 facts, given hereafter, and by the results fairly attributable to 

 sexual selection, that the female, though comparatively passive, 

 generally exerts some choice and accejDts 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 a law almost as 

 general as the eagerness of the male. 



We are naturally led to enquire why the male, in so many and 

 such distinct classes, has become more eager than the female, so 

 that he searches for her, and plays the more active part in court- 

 ship. It would be no advantage and some loss of power if each 

 sex searched for the other; but why should the male almost 

 always be the seeker ? The ovules of plants after fertili- 

 sation have to be nourished for a time; hence the pollen is 

 necessarily brought to the female organs — being placed on the 

 stigma, by means of insects or the wind, or by the spontaneous 

 movements of the stamens ; and in the Algae, &c, by the loco- 

 motive power of the antherozooids. With lowly-organised 

 aquatic animals, permanently affixed to the same spot and having 

 their sexes separate, the male element is invariably brought to 

 the female ; and of this we can see the reason, for even if the 

 ova were detached before fertilisation, and did not require 

 subsequent nourishment or protection, there would yet be greater 

 difficulty in transporting them than the male element, because, 

 being larger than the latter, they are produced in far smaller 

 numbers. So that many of the lower animals are, in this re- 

 spect, analogous with plants. 21 The males of affixed and aquatic 

 animals having been led to emit their fertilising element in 

 this way, it is natural that any of their descendants, which 

 rose in the scale and became locomotive, should retain the same 

 habit ; and they would approach the female as closely as pos- 

 sible, in order not to risk the loss of the fertilising element in a 

 long j>assage of it through the water. With some few of the lower 



21 ' Assays and Observations.' of the male and female reproductive 



edited by Owen, vol. i. 1861, p. cells, remarks, " verhalt sich die- 



194. " eine bei der Vereinigung activ, 



21 Prof. Sachs (' Lehrbuch der "... die andere erscheint bei del 



Botanik, 1870, s. 633) in speaking " Vereinigung passiv." 



