102 THE THEORIES OF EVOLUTION 



sexes as a basis for his deductions and that he 

 merely took into account a numerical inequality due 

 to temporary conditions. Whether the solution he 

 offers is satisfactory or not, this criticism misses the 

 mark. 



It could be imagined, other critics say, that the 

 males endowed with ornamental characters are also 

 the strongest and beget a more numerous and more 

 vigorous progeny. This is a gratuitous assumption, 

 as no correlation of this kind has ever been observed. 

 Even if we should suppose that, for some reason or 

 other, the results of sexual selection are permanent 

 and that all the males lacking in ornamental charac- 

 ters are actually eliminated by the females at the 

 time of mating, the process would be, as some critics 

 point out, not only useless but harmful to the species ; 

 it would therefore yield to the action of natural se- 

 lection and cease altogether. 



Selection by the females, some scientists say, has 

 never been observed scientifically. Darwin grants this 

 point in advance. He gives many examples of ef- 

 forts made by the male to attract the female, but very 

 few examples of females signifying their prefer- 

 ences. He admits this choice for various reasons of 

 a general order: Animals can distinguish between 

 colours, sounds and odours; we may well suppose 

 that they have their preferences, and also a rudi- 

 mentary aesthetic sense, which must have grown grad- 



