THE NATURAL 



sociability in angoras, which is just the specie Buffon 

 had studied. 



Buck rabbits have still other aberrations, hunters pre- 

 tend that they pursue doe-hares, tire them and wear 

 them out by their lustiness; it is certain that these 

 couplings give no result. 



The Egyptian ichneumon lives in families. It seems 

 that it is very interesting to see them on a hunting 

 expedition, first the male, then the female, then the 

 young in Indian file. Female and young do not take 

 their eyes off father, and imitate all his gestures with 

 care: one might think the train was a large serpent mov- 

 ing in reeds. The wolf who like the fox lives in pairs, 

 helps his female and feeds her, but he does not know 

 his young and will eat them if they come to hand. Cer- 

 tain great apes, gibbon and orang are temporarily 

 monogamous. 



Polygamy would be explained by the rarity of males; 

 which is not the case with most mammals, among whom 

 the males are almost constantly more numerous. Buffon 

 was the first to note this predominance, neither has he 

 nor has anyone since, given a satisfactory explanation. 

 People have said that in man, at least, the elder parent 

 gives the sex to the offspring, and the more surely as 

 the difference in age is greater, but, by this reckoning 

 one would have almost nothing but males. People have 

 also said that the younger the woman, the more likely 

 the child to be male. The early marriages of the past 

 are supposed to have yielded more males than the late 

 marriages of the present. None of these statements is 

 serious. What remains past doubt is that European 



