LESSONS FKOM NATUKE. [CHAP. X. 



tions. Again (p. 141) he says: &quot;Many female progenitors 

 of the peacock must, during a long line of descent, have 

 appreciated this superiority ; for they have unconsciously, by 

 the continued preference of the most beautiful males, rendered 

 the peacock the most splendid of living birds.&quot; 



He also remarks (p. 202) : &quot; The females are most excited 

 by, or prefer pairing with the more ornamented males, or 

 those which are the best songsters, or play the best antics.&quot; 

 But do they do so? That they have preferences is likely 

 enough, but that such preferences are determined as Mr. 

 Darwin says they are, is the very thing to be proved, and 

 against which we have cited (e.g., Sir R. Heron s peacocks) 

 rebutting evidence. Again, at p. 37, vol. ii. he says : &quot; On 

 the whole we may conclude with tolerable safety that the 

 beautiful colours of many lizards, as well as various ap 

 pendages and other strange modifications of structure, have 

 been gained by the males through sexual selection for the sake 

 of ornament, and have leen transmitted either to their male 

 offspring alone or to both sexes.&quot; 



Once more, as to the stridulating organs of insects, he says : 

 &quot; No one who admits the agency of natural selection, will 

 dispute that these musical instruments have been acquired 

 through sexual selection.&quot; Speaking of the peculiarities of 

 humming-birds and pigeons, Mr. Darwin observes, &quot; The sole 

 difference between these cases is, that in one the result is 

 due to man s selection, whilst in the other, as with humming 

 birds, birds of paradise, &c., it is due to sexual selection, 

 that is, to the selection by the females of the more beautiful 

 males &quot; (vol. ii. p. 78). Of birds, the males of which are 

 brilliant, but the hens only slightly so, he remarks : &quot; These 

 cases are almost certainly due to characters primarily acquired 

 by the male, having been transferred, in a greater or less 

 degree, to the female &quot; (vol. ii. p. 128). &quot; The colours of the 

 males may safely be attributed to sexual selection &quot; (vol. ii. 

 p. 194). As to certain species of birds in which the males 

 alone are black, we are told &quot; there can hardly le a doubt, 

 that blackness in these cases has been a sexuallv selected 



