SEXUAL SELECTION. 251 



shows that the male is the more active member in the 

 courtship of the sexes.* 



Tho female, on the other hand, with the rarest excep- 

 tions, is less eager than the male. As the illustrious 

 Hunter f long ago observed she generally " requires to be 

 courted;" she is coy, and may often be seen endeavoring for 

 a long time to escape from the male. Every observer of 

 the habits of animals will be able to call to mind instances 

 of this kind. It is shown by various facts, given hereafter, 

 and by the results fairly attributable to sexual selection, 

 that the female, though comparatively passive, generally 

 exerts some choice and accepts one male in preference to 

 others. Or she may accept, as appearances would some- 

 times lead us to believe, not the male which is the most 

 attractive to her, but the one which is the least dis- 

 tasteful. The exertion of some choice on the part of the 

 female seems a law almost as general as the eagerness of the 

 male. 



"We are naturally led to inquire why the male, in so 

 many and such distinct classes, has become more eager 

 than the female, so that he searches for her and plays 

 the more active part in courtship. It would be no 

 advantage and some loss of power if each sex searched 

 for the other; but why should the male almost always be 

 the seeker? The ovules of plants after fertilization have 

 to be nourished for a time; hence the pollen is necessarily 

 brought to the female organs being placed on the stigma, 

 by means of insects or the wind, or by the spontaneous 

 movements of the stamens; and in the Algae, etc., by the 

 locomotive power of the antherozooids. With lowly-organ- 

 ized aquatic animals, permanently affixed to the same spot 

 and having their sexes separate, the male element is invari- 

 ably brought to the female; and of this we can see the 



* One parasitic Hymenopterous insect (Westwood, " Modern Class, 

 of Insects," vol. ii, p. 160) forms an exception to the rule, as the 

 male has rudimentary wings, and never quits the cell in which it is 

 born, while the female has well-developed wings. Audouin believes 

 that the females of this species are impregnated by the males which 

 are born in the same cells with them; but it is much more probable 

 that the females visit other cells, so that close interbreeding is thus 

 avoided. We shall hereafter meet in various classes, with a few 

 exceptional cases, in which the female, instead of the male, is the 

 (seeker and wooer. 



f" Essays and Observations," edited by Owen, vol. i, 1861, p. 194. 



