388 The Outline of Science 



that most strongly evokes the pairing instinct, and that it is not 

 necessary to credit the female with any analytic weighing of 

 the merits of the various males. The details must count, if there 

 is anything in the theory, but they may count, not as such, but 

 as contributing to a general impression of interesting attractive- 

 ness. 



To point out that certain masculine features, such as antlers, 

 are congruent with the male constitution, just as certain feminine 

 features, such as functional milk-glands, are congruent with the 

 female constitution, is getting behind the question of selection 

 to that of the origin of the variations which form the raw materi- 

 als of the sifting process an interesting line of inquiry which 

 has been followed by Geddes and Thomson in their Evolution 

 of Sean. 



Another important consideration arises when we think of 

 the frequent intricacy and subtlety of the courtship habits (see 

 Pycraft's Courtship of Animals). There must be some deep 

 racial justification for this. Groos has suggested that the fe- 

 male's coyness is an important check to the male's passion, which 

 tends to be too violent. Julian Huxley has suggested from his 

 fine study of the Crested Grebe that the courtship ceremonies 

 establish emotional bonds which keep the two birds of a pair 

 together and constant to each other. 



CONCLUSIONS 



1. If Darwinism means the general idea of evolution or 

 transformism that higher forms are descended from lower- 

 then it stands to-day more firmly than ever. 



2. If Darwinism means the particular statement of the 

 factors in evolution which is expounded in The Origin of Species, 

 The Descent of Man, and The Variation of Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication, then it must be said that while the main 



