COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 471 



The preferences displayed in courtship are more frequently 

 or more generally exhibited by the female than the male 

 animal (Darwin). The common cock, however, chooses 

 young hens ; he shows the same sort of natural preference 

 that man so usually does for fresh, youthful attractions. On 

 the other hand, the partiality of the cock pheasant is for 

 old hens (Darwin) ; so that in the amatory and matrimonial 

 affairs of other animals, as in those of man, most fortunately 

 no doubt, de gustibus nil disputandum. 



But deliberate choice or selection is by no means con- 

 fined to love affairs. It is constantly shown, and in a great 

 variety of ways, by the lower animals quite as much at 

 least by the males as the females. Thus it is shown in the 

 following important particulars : 



1. The preference of duty to revenge, to pleasure, to 

 personal ease or gratification in other words, of the right 

 to the wrong ; or, on the contrary of 



2. The expedient or politic whether or not it is also 

 wrong to the right ; of selfish considerations to self-sacri- 

 ficing benevolence. 



8. Preference of immediate and certain death by suicide 

 to the probability of prolonged life and torture ; or of death 

 to the desertion of their young by mothers ; or in many other 

 cases 



4. Choice of the lesser of two evils or dangers. 



5. Partiality for human society shown by so many 

 birds and other animals. 



6. Likings or dislikes for or to particular animals, 

 persons, places, things, sounds, and colours including 

 favouritism as to companions or playfellows, masters or 

 mistresses, nesting or building places, and the materials of 

 construction ; especially the 



7. Predilections shown by so many animals for particular 

 foods or articles thereof for instance, for those used by man, 

 including cooked foods and intoxicating beverages. 



8. Preference of liberty or freedom to captivity or con- 

 finement ; but, on the other hand, a singular deliberate 



9. Selection of captivity and its advantages in preference 

 to a wild life with its risks. 



