144 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS THE WEB OF LIFE 



attire. And there are so many facts supporting the view that the 

 females of many animals are influenced by the ornamental endow- 

 ments of prospective partners, that the existence of the Law of 

 Beauty will be here taken as provisionally proved. At the same 

 time it must not be applied to explain facts in too sweeping a 

 manner. Every case should be considered on its own merits, and 

 our knowledge of animal habits is so very imperfect that it is easy 

 to fall into error. It is also necessary to carefully avoid the pitfall 

 of unconsciously assuming that the mental endowments of lower 

 animals closely resemble our own. There is no reason to think, 

 for example, that a hen-bird exerts a deliberate choice in the 

 selection of a mate. She may be strongly attracted towards one 

 of several possible partners, and beauty of plumage or voice may 

 have to do with such attraction, but that is not the same thing as 

 " deliberate choice " in the usual sense. 



It is only among comparatively specialized animals that the 

 Laws of Battle and Beauty are exemplified, and a few examples 

 will fittingly illustrate the subject. 



COURTSHIP AND MATING OF MAMMALS (MAMMALIA) 



THE LAW OF BATTLE. A complete list of species in which 

 the males fight in order to secure mates would be a fairly complete 

 catalogue of Mammals, for in this class the question of Beauty 

 would appear to be subordinate. One would naturally expect 

 combats to be most frequent in cases where the females were 

 comparatively few in number, but as a matter of fact it is better 

 marked among polygamous species, which are necessarily social, 

 though it by no means follows that all gregarious animals are poly- 

 gamous. Deer and various other Hoofed Mammals afford good 

 illustrations, and as these lead a wandering life it is possible that 

 the practice of polygamy has arisen from the desirability of keeping 

 a herd together, an end to which it is more favourable than 

 monogamy. In nearly all species of Deer the males alone possess 

 antlers, and this is correlated with the fact that they fight 

 furiously together in the struggle to secure mates. In the case 

 of our native Red Deer (Cervus elaphus] the adult stags live by 

 themselves except for about three weeks in the autumn, this being" 

 the mating-season. Fierce combats are then frequent, that result 

 in the discomfiture of the weaker males, some of which may be 



