114 DARWINISM TO-DAY. 



tion of ornamental variations by selection. As a matter of 

 fact in a majority of animal species, at least among the 

 vertebrates, males and females exist in approximately equal 

 numbers. 



Observation shows that in most species the female is 

 wholly passive in the matter of pairing, accepting the first 

 Female is usn- ma ^ e that offers. Note the cock and hens in 

 ally passive. the barnyard. 



Ornamental colours are as often a characteristic of males 



of kinds of animals in which there is no real pairing, as 



among: those which pair. How explain by 



Ornaments oc- * 



cur on males that sexual selection the remarkable colours in the 

 do not pair, breeding season of many fishes, in which the 

 female never, perhaps, even sees the male which fertilises 

 her dropped eggs? 



Choice on a basis of ornament and attractiveness implies 

 a high degree of aesthetic development on the part of the 



females of animals for whose development in 

 asthSlvelop- this line we have no (other) proof. Indeed this 

 ment in lower choice demands aesthetic recognition among 

 animals. 



animals to which we distinctly deny such a 



development, as the butterflies and other insects in which 

 secondary sexual characters of colour, etc., are abundant 

 and conspicuous. Similarly with practically all invertebrate 

 animals. Further, in those groups of higher animals where 

 aesthetic choice may be presumed possible we have repeated 

 evidence that preferences vary with individuals. Certainly 

 they do with man, the animal species in which such prefer- 

 ences certainly and most conspicuously exist. In some 

 human races hair on the face is thought beautiful ; in others, 

 ugly. Besides even if we may attribute fairly a certain 

 amount of aesthetic feeling to such animals as mammals and 

 birds, is this feeling to be so keen as to lead the female 

 to make choice among only slightly differing patterns of 

 songs ? Yet this assumption is necessary if the development 



