146 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1, 



trary, the female is interested in the male display, she seems 

 perfectly absorbed in watching him, the muscles are all relaxed, 

 unconscious of herself she directs her glance now here, now 

 there, as he moves about ; as he continues his mad antics, her 

 appearance gives every indication of pleasurable excitement, 

 and as he comes closer and closer, she yields herself to the 

 impulses which he has awakened in her, and, as in pulex, joins 

 in his dance and whirls around and around as though intoxi- 

 cated. We claim, then, to have completely answered Mr. Wal- 

 lace's first objection. As to the second point, it is true that we 

 have no direct proof that the females select the more beautiful 

 males. In the nature of things, such proof is almost, if not 

 quite, impossible to get ; but indirect evidence we have in 

 abundance. Thus we have shown that many male spiders 

 have varied ornaments and brilliant color. That these are 

 only developed when they become sexually mature, before 

 which time the males resemble their plainly attired mates. 

 That these secondary characters are extremely variable and are 

 always so placed as to be useful in attracting the attention of 

 the female, and, in point of fact, are so used. As we have 

 shown, in a former part of this paper, that Mr. Tylor's explana- 

 tion of this remarkable distribution of color and ornament has 

 little, or we might almost say, no evidence at all in its support, 

 the way is left open for the only other explanation of these 

 facts thus far offered, namely, the one that asserts that the 

 female has been the important factor in determining both the 

 ornamentation and its location, Natural Selection controlling 

 the process, and in many cases allowing only a minimum of 

 sexual difference. 



While it may be admitted that the vigor of the male plays 

 some part in deciding the choice of the female, it seems to us 

 impossible to admit that it is the important factor, since it 

 would leave entirely unexplained all the facts of display. This 

 would not count for so much in the case of birds, since the 

 peculiarities of their display are difficult to observe, ai:id in 

 some instances the assertion that the movements are meaning- 



