LEAF AND TENDRIL 



or plus, while the female is negative. The life of 

 the female among the lower animals runs more 

 smoothly and evenly — is more on the order of the 

 neutral tint — than is that of the male. The females 

 of the same group differ from one another much 

 less than do. the males. The male carries a com- 

 mission that makes him more restless, feverish, and 

 pugnacious. He is literally "spoiling for a fight" 

 most of the time. This surplusage, these loaded 

 dice, make the game pretty sure. 



Cut off the ugly bull's horns, and you have tamed 

 him. Castration tames him still more, and changes 

 his whole growth and development, making him 

 approximate in form and disposition to the female. 

 I fancy that the same treatment would have the 

 same effect upon the peacock, or the bird of para- 

 dise, or any other bird of fantastic plumage and 

 high color. Destroy the power of reproduction, and 

 the whole masculine fabric of pride — prowess, 

 weapons and badges, gay plumes and decorations 

 — falls into ruins. 



When we remember how inattentive and indif- 

 ferent the females of all species of birds are to the 

 displays of the males before them, it is incredible 

 that their taste in fashions, their preferences for the 

 gay and the ornate, should have played any con- 

 siderable part in superinducing these things. 



Darwin traces with great skill the gradual devel- 

 opment of the ball and socket ocelli in the plumage 

 94 



