Dec. 1895. SEXUAL SELECTION. 399 



ornament is made by the ocelli at the root of the front legs. They 

 display no less eccentricity. As a rule, we find only one eye- 

 spot, sometimes two, or even indications of a third. Or there may 

 be two on one side and only one on the other. Like the other 

 decorative colours, these ocelli are most pronounced in the male sex, 

 and they are, as anyone acquainted with this species will admit, 

 distinct from the ground-colour, ranging through every shade of 

 cobalt, sea-green, and bronze, and generally framed in a ring of 

 black. 



These examples will suffice to show that the matter is not one 

 of " heightened coloration," but essentially of ornamental design. 

 To anyone who has observed the animal in its native haunts another 

 fact will have become equally clear : that the surprising variability 

 among adult individuals, even from one locality, demonstrates that 

 these designs cannot be adaptive in any sense of the word. 



If, therefore, this manifold ornamentation of L. muralis be due to 

 preferential mating, we can only conclude that the females vary 

 much in their tastes, and that these tastes must be of an order high 

 enough to appreciate the minutest differences. To take an instance. 

 Supposing two varieties of birds or of butterflies were distinguished 

 by blue and green ocelli respectively, sexual selection would be called 

 in to account for their differentiation. On applying the same 

 hypothesis to L. muralis, the formation of vav. viridi-ocellata out of 

 caviileo-ocellata (or vice versa : it is immaterial which of the two has 

 the priority) must be explained by assuming divergent tastes, and an 

 ability to humour them, on the part of the females. Or, again, the 

 non-adaptive vav. rubrivenUis that occurs often singly among the (older) 

 white-bellied form, but has elsewhere established itself to the 

 exclusion of all others (a " local fashion ") — this variety can only 

 have arisen through long-continued " selection " of the red under- 

 surfaces. 



If so, we might expect to see something in the shape of display 

 on the part of the male, or of choice exercised by the female. I have 

 detected nothing of the kind, and am aware of no recorded observa- 

 tions to this effect. On the contrary, my experience goes to show 

 that the individuals interbreed freely, without consideration for 

 colour, and this agrees with other accounts.' It is true that Professor 

 Eimer has explained facts like that adduced by Giglioli,- of two 

 distinct varieties occurring together on a small islet by the suggestion 

 that a " profound antipathy " exists between them which prevents 

 their interbreeding and to which the frequent battles bear testimony, 



1 "The so-called races commingle freely" (Bedriaga, " Die Faraglione-Eidechse," 

 1876, p. 12). "II y a peu de fidclitL- dans la gent Lezard, et les deux sexes aiment 

 egalement le changement" (F"atio, " Vertebres de la Suisse," vol. iii., p. 65). Pro- 

 fessor Leydig informs me that he has never observed anything in support of the 

 sexual selection theory with lizards. Mr. Boulenger writes in the same sense. 



- In Nature, no. 475, vol. xix., p. 97. 



