DARWINISM ATTACKED. m 



shape, of different body-parts or of the whole body, the 

 beards and hair-tufts of many male mammals and the combs 

 and wattles of male gallinaceous birds. Of apparent harm- 

 fulness are those ultra-developed pro-thoracic and head 

 processes, "horns," of stag and other lamellicorn beetles, the 

 conspicuous staring colours of many male birds, the long 

 dangling plumes, the weighty crests, and heavy dragging 

 tails of others, all these parts also usually being dangerously 

 conspicuously coloured. The lively loud song of many 

 male birds, and the dancing and leaping of numerous male 

 spiders and some male birds must also involve some danger 

 to the performers by attracting the attention of their enemies. 

 In fact most of those secondary sexual characters that are 

 classified under the general head of "exciting organs" are 

 apparently of a sort that should be actually disadvantageous 

 in the struggle for existence. They are of a character tend- 

 ing to make their possessors conspicuous and thus readily 

 perceived by their carnivorous enemies. How is to be 

 explained the existence of so many and such highly de- 

 veloped structural and physiological characters of this kind, 

 a condition that seems to stand in direct opposition to the 

 theory of natural selection ? Darwin's answer to this ques- 

 tion is contained in his theory of sexual selection. 



This theory, in few words, is that there is practically a 



competition or struggle for mating, and that those males are 



_ . , , successful in this struggle which are the stron- 



Darwin's the- 

 ory of sexual gest and best equipped for battle among them- 



selection, selves, or which are most acceptable, by reason 



of ornament or other attractiveness, to the females. In the 

 former case mating with a certain female depends upon 

 overcoming in fight the other suitors, the female being the 

 passive reward of the victor; in the second case the female 

 is presumed to exercise a choice, this choice depending upon 

 the attractiveness of the male (due to colour, pattern, plumes, 

 processes, odour, song, etc.). The actual fighting among 



