THE SEXUAL SELECTION THEORY 135 



is the reason for this preponderance of males ? Why 

 is it that when the males are in excess of the females the 

 latter should be the more brilliantly coloured and the 

 more amorous ? These questions at present are un- 

 answerable. When polygamy obtains it seems always 

 to be assumed that it is explained by the excessive pug- 

 nacity of the males, which, after fierce contests for the 

 mastery, take forcible possession of as many females as 

 may be captured and held in durance ; the same argument 

 seems never to have been applied when polyandry obtains. 

 There can be no doubt but that it applies in neither case. 



When polygamy obtains, as we have already pointed 

 out, the females are not seized and captured by the males, 

 they are not victims of a lecherous lord. On the contrary, 

 they seek the males, and the intensity of the desire to 

 satisfy their natural cravings extinguishes any feeling 

 of jealousy. 



The same interpretation must obtain where the 

 numerical values of the sexes is reversed. Failure to 

 appreciate this accounts for one of the many futile 

 suggestions made for the suppression of the rabbit plague 

 in Australia, which was that large hauls of these pests 

 should be made by netting, and that the females should 

 be slain and the males released. This, it was held, would 

 lead to the speedy reduction of the latter, which would 

 kill one another in their fights for the remaining females. 

 The plan was impracticable, but the suggestion demon- 

 strated the prevalent belief as to the attitude of the male 

 in this respect. Had it been v/ell founded, surely poly- 

 androus species, whether of birds or beasts, would never 

 have existed ; for, by the reduction of the males, mono- 

 gamy would speedily have been restored. How, then, are 

 we to explain polyandry ? How are we to explain the 



