SEXUAL SELECTION. 207 



battle for life and in leaving a numerous progeny, but for the 

 presence of better endowed males. We may infer that this 

 would be the case, because the females, which are unarmed and 

 unornamented, are able to fjurvive and procreate their kind. 

 Secondary sexual characters of the kind just referred to, will be 

 fully discussed in the following chapters, as being in many re- 

 spects interesting, but especially as depending on the will, choice, 

 and rivalry of the individuals of either sex. When we behold 

 two males fighting for the possession of the female, or several 

 male birds displaying their gorgeous plumage, and performing 

 strange antics before an assembled body of females, we cannot 

 doubt that, though led by instinct, they know what they are 

 about, and consciously exert their mental and bodily powers. 



Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the 

 selection of those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so it 

 appears that the strongest and most vigorous males, or those pro- 

 vided with the best weapons, have prevailed under nature, and 

 have led to the improvement of the natural breed or species. A 

 slight degree of variability leading to some advantage, however 

 slight, in reiterated deadly contests would suffice for the work of 

 sexual selection; and it is certain that secondary sexual charac- 

 ters are eminently variable. Just as man can give beauty, ac- 

 cording to his standard of taste, to his male poultry, or more 

 strictly can modify the beauty originally acquired by the parent 

 species, can give to the Sebright bantam a new and elegant 

 plumage, an erect and peculiar carriage — so it appears that fe- 

 male birds in a state of nature, have by a long selection of the 

 more attractive males, added to their beauty or other attractive 

 qualities. No doubt this implies powers of discrimination and 

 taste on the part of the female which will at first appear ex- 

 tremely improbable; but by the facts to be adduced hereafter, I 

 hope to be able to show that the females actually have these 

 powers. When, however, it is said that the lower animals have 

 a sense of beauty, it must not be supposed that such sense is 

 comparable with that of a cultivated man, with his multiform 

 and complex associated ideas. A more just comparison would 

 be between the taste for the beautiful in animals, and that in the 

 lowest savages, who admire and deck themselves with any bril- 

 liant, glittering, or curious object. 



From our ignorance on several points, the precise manner in 

 which sexual selection acts is somewhat uncertain. Neverthe- 

 less if those naturalists who already believe in the mutability of 

 species, will read the following chapters, they will, I think, agree 

 with me, that sexual selection has played an important part in 

 the history of the organic world. It is certain that amongst al- 

 most all animals there is a struggle between the males for the 

 possession of the female. This fact is so notorious that it would 



