172 EVOLUTION 



these are inferior in attractiveness. In the 

 mysterious case of spiders, the fastidious 

 female sometimes kills a suitor who does 

 not adequately please her; as well as after- 

 wards, it may be, the one who does. 



Since Darwin's day many of the supposed 

 cases of preferential mating have broken down 

 rather badly under criticism, but there are 

 still many facts to go upon. It seems clear 

 that the suitors are sometimes highly excited, 

 and that their displays — often more reflex 

 than deliberate — impetuously excite the fe- 

 male and overcome her coyness — a character 

 which, as Groos points out, is of no incon- 

 siderable racial value. In some passages 

 Darwin seems to credit the female with a 

 high degree of "taste" or aesthetic fastidious- 

 ness; but he was probably on safer ground 

 when he wrote, "it is not probable that she 

 consciously deliberates; but she is most 

 excited or attracted by the most beautiful, 

 or melodious, or gallant males." We do not 

 know very clearly what choosing may mean 

 to a hen-bird; but even when she seems to 

 choose some slight improvement in colour or 

 song or dance, the probability is that she is 

 simply surrendering herself to the male whose 

 tout ensemble has most successfully excited 

 her sexual interest. 



Germinal Selection. — In 1895 Weis- 



