214 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



horns and combs have been developed apparently for 

 this sole purpose." 



The assumption that these " animals standing much 

 higher in the scale " owe their weapons to the selective 

 action of the females forms the crux of the whole Sexual 

 Selection theory in regard to the significance of ornament. 

 The evidence that the intensification of pigment and 

 the eccentricities of growth in the shape of crests and 

 frills have a fascinating effect on the female is more than 

 under suspicion ; it is discredited by the facts which have 

 come to light in regard to behaviour during the periods 

 of sexual exaltation. And there is a growing conviction 

 that this is so. No better proof could be found that 

 " ornaments " can, and do, exist in spite of, rather than 

 because of, the action of " sexual selection." They are 

 the accidents of this selection, not a part of its machinery. 



Incipient horns are found in not a few cases among 

 the females of these insects, while in others, as in the 

 case of the Reindeer Beetle, they are almost as well 

 developed as in the males. This is what one would 

 expect to find if these outgrowths were the result of 

 inherent variations restrained as to their size by natural 

 selection, which eliminates only when this growth 

 penalizes, by increasing the struggle for existence. 



As to the actual behaviour of Beetles when sexually 

 excited but very little information is obtainable; but 

 there are records of species the males of which fight 

 with rivals for the possession of females. Wallace saw 

 two males of Leptorhynchus augustatus, a Beetle with no 

 name in common speech and a long beak, " fighting 

 for a female, who stood close by busy at her boring, 

 rhey pushed at each other with their rostra, and clawed 

 cmd thumped in the greatest rage." The smaller male, 



