SEXUAL SELECTION. 217 



sects, as Klrby remarks," "the law is, that the male shall seek 

 "the female." Two good authorities, Mr. Blackwall and Mr. C. 

 Spence Bate, tell me that the males of spiders and crustaceans 

 are more active and more erratic in their habits than the females. 

 When the organs of sense or locomotion are present in the one 

 sex of insects and crustaceans and absent in the other, or when, 

 as Is frequently the case, they are more highly developed in the 

 one than in the other, it is, as far as I can discover, almost in- 

 variably the male which retains such organs, or has them most 

 developed; and this shows that the male is the more active mem- 

 ber in the courtship of the sexes.'" 



The female, on the other hand, with the rarest exceptions, is 

 less eager than the male. As the illustrious Hunter=° long ago 

 observed, she generally "requires to be courted;" she is coy, and 

 may often be seen endeavoring for a long time to escape ffom the 

 male. Every observer of the habits of animals will be able to call 

 to mind instances of this kind. It is shown by various facts, 

 given hereafter, and by the results fairly attributable to sexual 

 selection, that the female, though comparatively passive, generally 

 exerts some choice and accepts one male in preference to others. 

 Or she may accept, as appearances would sometimes lead us to 

 believe, not the male which is the most attractive to her, but 

 the one which Is the least distasteful. The exertion of some 

 choice on the part of the female seems a law almost as general 

 as the eagerness of the male. 



We are naturally led to inquire why the male, in so many and 

 such distinct classes, has become more eager than the female, so 

 that he searches for her, and plays the more active part in court- 

 ship. It would be no advantage and some loss of power if each 

 sex searched for the other; but why should the male almost 

 always be the seeker? The ovules of plants after fertilization 

 have to be nourished for a time; hence the pollen is necessarily 

 brought to the female organs — being placed on the stigma, by 

 means of insects or the wind, or by the spontaneous movements 



'* Kirby and Spence, 'Introduction to Entomology,' vol. iii. 1826, p. 

 342. 



'" One parasitic Hymenopterous insect (Westwood, 'Modern Class, 

 of Insects,' vol. ii. p. 160) forms an exception to the rule, as the male 

 has rudimentary wings, and never quits the cell in which it is born, 

 whilst the female has well-developed wings. Audouin believes that 

 the females of this species are impregnated by the males which are 

 born in the same cells with them; but it is much more probable that 

 the females visit other cells, so that close interbreeding is thus 

 avoided. We shall hereafter meet in various classes, with a few ex- 

 ceptional cases, in which the female, instead of the male, is the 

 seeker and wooer. 



™ 'Essays and Observations,' edited by Owen, vol. i. 1861, p. 194. 



