The Descent of Man 1 3 



Nevertheless, we do not find, for all this, any defect of 

 colour or markings, for, as Mr. Alfred Wallace observes 

 {Nature, March 15th, 1871, p. 182), 'the Bombyces are 

 amongst the most elegantly coloured of all moths.' 



Mr. Darwin gives a number of instances of sexual 

 characters, such as horns, spines, etc., in beetles and other 

 insects; but there is no fragment of evidence that such 

 structures are in any way due to feminine caprice. Other 

 structures are described which doubtless do aid the sexual 

 act, as the claws of certain Crustacea ; but these are often of 

 such size and strength {e.g. in Callianassa and Orchestia) as 

 to render any power of choice on the part of the female in 

 the highest degree incredible. 



Similarly with the higher classes, i.e. Fishes, Reptiles, and 

 Beasts, we have descriptions and representations of a number 

 of sexual peculiarities, but no evidence whatever that such 

 characters are due to female selection. Often we have state- 

 ments which conflict strongly with a belief in any such 

 action. Thus, e.g., Mr. Darwin quotes Mr. R. Buist, Superin- 

 tendent of Fisheries, as saying that male salmon 



'are constantly fighting and tearing each other on the spawning- 

 beds, and many so injure each other as to cause the death of num- 

 bers, many being seen swimming near the banks of the river in a 

 state of exhaustion, and apparently in a dying state. . . The keeper 

 of Stormontfield found in the northern Tyne about three hundred dead 

 salmon, all of which, with one exception, were males ; and he was 

 convinced that they had lost their lives by fighting.' — Vol. ii. p. 3. 



The female's choice must here be much limited, and the 

 only kind of sexual selection which can operate is that first 

 kind, determined by combat, which, we before observed, 

 must rather be ranked as a kind of ' natural selection.' Even 

 with regard to this, however, Ave may well hesitate, when 

 Mr. Darwin tells us, as he does, that seeing the habitual con- 

 tests of the males, * it is surprising that they have not gene- 



