PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



CHAPTER XVI 



POLYGAMY 



Rarity of monogamy. Taste for change in animals. 

 Roles of monogamy and polygamy in the stability or 

 instability of specific types. Strife of the couple 

 against polygamy. Couples among insects. Among 

 fish, batrachians, saurians. Monogamy of pigeons, of 

 nightingales. Monogamy in carnivora, in rodents. 

 Habits of the rabbit. The ichneumon. Unknown 

 causes of polygamy. Rarity and superabundance of 

 males. Polygamy in insects. In fish. In gallinacea, 

 in web-footed birds. In herbivora. The antelope's 

 harem. Human polygamy. How it tempers the 

 couple among civilized races. 



THERE are no monogamous animals save those which 

 love only once during their lifetime. Exceptions to this 

 rule have not sufficient constancy to be erected into a 

 counter-rule. There are monogamists in fact, there are 

 none of necessity, from the time an animal lives long 

 enough to commit the reproductive act several times. 

 Free female mammals nearly always flee the male who 

 has once served them, they need a new one. A bitch 

 does not receive last season's dog save in direst extremity. 

 This appears to me to be the struggle of the specie against 

 variety. The couple is the maker of varieties. Polygamy 

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