SEXUAL SELECTION 



55 



not an awarder of a prize, but rather a hunted creature. So, 

 just as the beast of prey has special instincts for finding his 

 prey, the ardent male must have special instincts for subdu- 

 ing feminine reluctance, and just as in the beast of prey the 

 instinct of ravenous pursuit is refined into the various arts 

 of the chase, so, from such crude efforts at wooing, that 

 courtship has finally developed in which sexual passion is 

 psychologically sublimated into love." Groos is very likely 

 correct in his belief that the importance of the act of pair- 

 ing has led, through natural selection, to the development 

 of coyness in the female, in order that more ardor may be 

 necessitated in the male and the act of pairing effectually 

 performed. This belief, however, does not diminish at all 

 the reasons for recognizing that the females do exercise 

 choice. This choice is probably not so much a conscious 

 choice between rival males as a choice between accepting 

 a certain mate and refusing to pair at all with him. But, 

 under this conception, it will be those males which most 

 successfully stimulate the sexual instincts of the females 

 which will secure mates. It has been observed by Dr. and 

 Mrs. Peckham that often a male hunting spider may fail 

 to win the female. In observing the courtship of butterflies 

 I have found the male unsuccessful after more than an hour 

 of pursuit, until finally he has abandoned his quest. There 

 seems no doubt that the females of many groups of animals 

 do exercise choice, accepting or rejecting certain mates. 



Now observe what is the effect of sexual selection on 

 evolution. Natural selection secures the preservation of 

 characters which help their possessors to survive in the 

 struggle for existence. 1 Sexual selection, on the other hand, 



1 This statement is not quite accurate, as we will see later (page 82), but it will 

 serve for the present use. 



