DARWIN AND REVIEWERS 45 



of the bamboo ^ as to assist greatly in concealing him 

 from his approaching prey.' But this view does not 

 appear to me satisfactory." (It seems opposed to the 

 more usual habits of the creature.) " We have some 

 sHght evidence that his beauty may be due to sexual 

 selection, for in two species of felis the analogous 

 marks and colours are rather brighter in the male 

 than in the female. The zebra is conspicuously 

 striped, and stripes cannot afford any protection on 

 the open plains of South Africa." ^ Yet, when 

 naturalists to-day refer every colour and pattern 

 under the sun to the principle of protection, the 

 reviewers all agree that Darwin agrees with them. 

 Truly, nowadays, *' ' 'Darwin ' laudetur et algetT 



The fact is that for some reason — I believe 

 because it lessens the supposed mental gap between 

 man and other animals — Darwin's theory of sexual 

 selection was, from the beginning, looked askance at ; 

 and even those who may accept it, now, in the 

 general, do so tentatively, and with many cautious 

 expressions intended to guard their own reputations. 

 This is not a frame of mind favourable to applying 

 that theory, and, consequently, all the applications 

 and extensions go to the credit of the more accepted, 

 because less bizarre, one ; for even if authorities are 

 mistaken here, they will, at least, have erred in the 

 orthodox groove, which is something. I believe, my- 

 self, that it is sexual selection which has produced 



^ In Indian sporting works one more often reads of tigers 

 being located in "nullahs" or patches of jungle than amongst 

 bamboos. The tiger, moreover, ranges into Siberia, and to the 

 shores of the Caspian, where bamboos, presumably, do not grow, 

 or are not common. 



2 " Descent of Man," pp. 543, 545. 



