How Darwinism Stands To-Day 387 



rear a larger number of offspring than the retarded females, 

 which would be compelled to unite with the conquered and less 

 powerful males, supposing the sexes to be numerically equal; 

 and this is all that is wanted to add, in the course of successive 

 generations, to the size, strength, and courage of the males, or 

 to improve their weapons" (Descent of Man, 2nd ed., p. 329). 

 Similarly, there would be a premium on those male characters 

 that are useful in the recognition and capture of the females, 

 e.g. large olfactory feelers in moths and strong claspers in skates. 



The term "sexual selection" was used by Darwin to include 

 all forms of sifting in connection with mating, but prominent 

 among these was the preferential behaviour of the female. "Just 

 as man can give beauty, according to his standard of taste, to 

 his male poultry ... so it appears that female birds in a state 

 of nature have, by a long selection of the more attractive males, 

 added to their beauty or other attractive qualities." In the court- 

 ship, which is often elaborate, the female selects in a literal 

 sense. 



Darwin was well aware of difficulties besetting his theory 

 of sexual selection, and his fellow-worker Alfred Russel Wallace 

 was one of his severest critics. There has to be proof that some 

 of the males are actually disqualified and left out in the cold. 

 But Darwin indicated that the sifting would work even if the 

 less successful males were not entirely eliminated. Moreover, 

 in some cases the female's preference goes to great lengths; 

 thus a female spider often kills a suitor who does not please 

 her. 



It is difficult, again, to prove actual "choice" on the female's 

 part. But there are undoubted cases of preferential mating, 

 whatever the psychology of the process may be. Some critics, 

 like Wallace, have pointed to the difficulty of crediting the 

 female with a capacity for appreciating slight differences in the 

 decorativeness, agility, or musical talent of her suitors. But 

 the modern answer is simply that the accepted mate is the one 



