LEAF AND TENDRIL 



Darwin came very near to the key of the problem 

 that engaged him, when he said that the reason 

 why the male has been the more modified in those 

 cases where the sexes diflPer in external appearance 

 is that "the males of almost all animals have 

 stronger passions than the females." 



"In mankind, and even as low down in the scale 

 as in the Lepidoptera, the temperature of the body 

 is higher in the male than in the female." (Darwin.) 



If the female refuses the male, it is not because he 

 does not fill her eye or arouse her admiration, but 

 because the mating instinct is not yet ripe. Among 

 nearly all our birds the males fairly thrust them- 

 selves upon the females, and carry them by storm. 

 This may be seen almost any spring day in the 

 squabbles of the English sparrows along the street. 

 The female appears to resist all her suitors, defend- 

 ing herself againlSt them by thrusting spitefully 

 right and left, and just what decides her finally to 

 mate with any one of them is a puzzle. It may be 

 stated as a general rule that all females are reluctant 

 or negative, and all males are eager or positive, and 

 that the male wins, not through the taste of the 

 female, — her love for bright colors and ornamental 

 appendages, — but through the dominance of his 

 own masculinity. He is the stronger force, he is 

 aggressive and persuasive, and finally kindles her 

 with his own breeding instinct. 



Even among creatures so low in the scale of life 

 98 



