252 Form and Color in Nature. 



been usually the attraction. A large share of our own diet, 

 and of that of other animals, is of such a nature. It has 

 only been made possible for man to continue to find nour- 

 ishment of this character through the care which he has 

 himself taken to insure the supply, by special cultivation of 

 such crops as wheat, etc. In the case of the nuts, which 

 have been in the special charge of the squirrels and their 

 like, it is supposed that the trees have found their profit 

 through the squirrel's habit of burying nuts for future ref- 

 erence, and then frequently forgetting their hiding place. 



It was believed by Darwin, who supported his opinion by 

 a vast amount of evidence, that a great part of the variety 

 of color found in the animal kingdom, and no insignificant 

 portion of the variety in form, were due to sexual selection 

 that is, to the accumulation of minute variations in these 

 particulars, through the exercise of a certain degree of 

 choice in mating, on the part of the sexes. This hypothesis 

 has been supported by Grant Allen, Mr. Poulton, Prof. 

 Peckham, and others, and very vigorously opposed by Al- 

 fred Eussel Wallace, although, as it seems to me, in a some- 

 what halting fashion, and with concessions which seriously 

 damage his argument. 



Mr. Darwin's investigations seem to show the exercise of 

 a certain choice on the part of the female as to her mate, 

 even as low down in the scale of development as the fishes, 

 and in more stylish circles a noteworthy amount of fastidi- 

 ousness is exhibited, often, it is claimed, accompanied by a 

 careful consideration of personal appearance. Mr. Wallace 

 doubts if the female in the lower ranks of animal life has 

 any aesthetic preferences, but, if she has not, it would 

 seem that there is a sad waste of time in the prelimi- 

 naries of courtship upon the part of the males. The de- 

 tails which have been recorded by different observers are 

 in many cases extremely curious, and seem very signifi- 

 cant. It is true that in some contests Mars has been the 

 victor rather than Apollo or Adonis, and from jousts upon 

 the field of war between ambitious suitors have doubtless 

 been derived, in part at least, the horns of the deer, the ox, 

 and other animals, the mane of the lion, and other features. 

 But a vast part of the decoration of birds and beasts con- 

 sisting mainly in the arrangement or coloration of the feath- 

 ers and hair, or in curious and apparently useless excres- 

 cences, and in most instances much more striking in the male 

 than in the female seems to be fairly accounted for as an 



