283 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



says that in 1865, out of 70 salmon first landed for tlie purpose of 

 obtaining the ova, upward of 60 were males. In 1867 be again 

 " calls attention to the vast disproportion of the males to the females. 

 We had at the outset at least ten males to one female." Afterward 

 female sufficient for obtaining ova were procured. He adds, " from 

 the great proportion of the males, they are constantly fightiug and 

 tearing each other on the spawning-beds."* This disproportion, no 

 doubt, can be accounted for in part, but whether wholly is doubtful, 

 by the males ascending the rivers before the females. Mr. F. Buck- 

 land remarks in regard to trout, that " it is a curious fact that the 

 mules preponderate very largely in number over the females. It 

 invfi I'iabltj happens that when the first rush of fish is made to the 

 net there will be at least seven or eight males to one female found 

 captive. 1 cannot quite account for this; either the males are more 

 numerous than the females, or the latter seek safety by concealment 

 rather than flight." He then adds, that by carefully searching the 

 banks sufficient females for obtaining ova can be found. f Mr. H. 

 Lee informs me that out of 212 trout taken for this purpose in Lord 

 Portsmouth's park, 150 were males and 62 females. 



The males of the Cyprinida? likewise seem to be in excess; but sev- 

 eral members of this family, viz., the carp, tench, bream and min- 

 now, appear reguhrly to follow the practice, rare in the animal king- 

 dom, of polyandry; tor the female while spawning is always attended 

 by two males, one on each side, and in the case of the bream by three 

 or four males. This fact is so wen known that it is always recom- 

 mended to stock a pond with two male tenches to one female, or at 

 least with three males to two females. With the minnow, an excel- 

 lent observer states, that on the spawning-beds the males are ten 

 times as numerous as the females; when a female comes among the 

 males, " she is immediately pressed closely 1>y a male on each side; 

 and when they have been in that situation for a time are superseded 

 by two other males." \ 



Insects. Tn this great class the Lepidoptera almost alone afford 

 means for judging of the proportional numbers of the sexes; for they 

 have been collected with special care by many good observers, and 

 have been largely bred from the egg or caterpillar state. I had hoped 

 that some breeders of silk-moths might have kept an exact record, 

 but after writing to France and Italy, and consulting various 'realises, 

 I cannot find that this has ever been done. The general opinion ap- 

 pears to be that the sexes are nearly equal, but in Italy, as I hear 

 from Prof. Caneatrini, many breeders are convinced that the females 

 are produced in excess. This same naturalist, however, informs me 

 that in the two yearly broods of the Ailanthus silk-moth (Bombyx 

 cynthid), the males greatly preponderate in the first, while in the 

 second the two sexes are 'nearly equal, or the females rather in 

 excess. 



* " The Stonnontfield Pisciculturai Experiments,'' 1866, p. 23. The 

 " Field " newspaper. June 2^. 18J7. 



t " Land and Water," 18G8, . 41. 



$ YarreJl, " Hist. British Fishes," vol. i, 1826, p. 807; on the Cijprlnus carplo, 

 p. 331; on the Tinea vulgaris, p. 381; on the Abramls brarna, p. 330. See, for the 

 minnow (^Leuciscus p/ioxinus), " London's Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. v, 1832, j>. 682, 



