THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP 145 



possessed by certain individuals over others of the same 

 sex and species solely in respect to the question of 

 mating. In all such instances, the males have acquired 

 their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental 

 decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in 

 the struggle for existence, but from having gained an 

 advantage over other males of the same kind, and from 

 having transmitted this advantage to offspring of their" 

 own sex alone. 



Just as man can improve the breed of his game- 

 cocks by the selection of those birds which are victorious 

 in the cockpit, so the strongest and most vigorous males, 

 or those provided with the best weapons, have prevailed 

 in the state of nature over their feebler and more 

 cowardly competitors. Just as man can give beauty, 

 according to his own standard of taste, to his male 

 poultry, by selecting special birds for their plumage, 

 their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female 

 birds in a state of nature have by a long-continued 

 choice of the more attractive males added to their 

 beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two 

 ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly 

 developed weapons like the horns of buffaloes, the 

 antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, and the spurs of 

 game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and 

 pugnacity always associated with such special organs, 

 i It has also developed the ornamental plumage of the 

 peacock, the argus pheasant, and the birds of paradise ; 

 the song of the lark, the thrush, and the nightingale ; 

 the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill ; and the 

 attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and 

 the scented butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses 



