SEXUAL SELECTION. 239 



about, and consciously exert their mental and bodily 

 poAvers. 



Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by 

 the selection of those birds which are victorious in the 

 cock-pit,, so it appears that the strongest and most vigorous 

 males, or those provided with the best weapons, have pre- 

 vailed under nature, and have led to the improvement of 

 the natural breed or species. A slight degree of variability 

 leading to some advantage, however slight, in reiterated 

 deadly contests would suffice for the work of sexual selec- 

 tion; and it is certain that secondary sexual characters are 

 eminently variable. Just as man can give beauty, accord- 

 ing to his standard of tase, to his male poultry, or more 

 strictly can modify the beauty originally acquired by the 

 parent species, can give to the Sebright bantam a new and 

 elegant plumage, an erect and peculiar carriage 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. No doubt 

 this implies powers of discrimination and taste on the part 

 of the female, which will at first appear extremely improb- 

 able; but by the facts to be adduced hereafter, I hope to 

 be able to show that the females actually have these 

 powers. When, however, it is said that the lower animals 

 have a sense of beauty, it must not be supposed that such 

 sense is comparable with that of a cultivated man, with his 

 multiform and complex associated ideas. A more just 

 comparison would be between the taste for the beautiful in 

 animals, and that in the lowest savages, who admire and 

 deck themselves with any brilliant, glittering, or curious 

 object. 



From our ignorance on several points, the precise manner 

 in which sexual selection acts is somewhat uncertain. 

 Nevertheless, if those naturalists who already believe in the 

 mutability of species, will read the following chapters, they 

 will, I think, agree with me that sectual selection has 

 played an important part in the history of the organic 

 world. It is certain that among almost all animals there is 

 a struggle between the males for the possession of the 

 female. This fact is so notorious that it would be super- 

 fluous to give instances. Hence the females have the oppor- 

 tunity of selecting one out of several males, on the suppo- 

 sition that their mental capacity suffices for the exertion of 



