2T4 AXUrAL COLOEATION, 



towards the male in a softer mood, evidently admiring the 

 grace of his antics. 



Generallj'^ speaking, the elaborate performances of the male 

 spider are for some time to no purpose, or they rouse the 

 female to make a sudden dash, which looks suspiciously like 

 a desire to eat him ; sometimes the female runs away ; ifc 

 appears to be a comparatively rare occurrence for mating to 

 take place at once ; this, of course, looks like an intelligent 

 selection on the part of the female. 



Mr. and Mrs. Peckham refer to a male of Synageles picata, 

 which was placed in a mating box with six females : he mated 

 with all of them ! This does not look so much like selection 

 unless it be urged that the females yielded to the one male 

 faute de mieux. 



In Astia vittata there are two kinds of males, one red like 

 the female, the other black ; the attitudes of courtship were 

 observed to be quite different in the two varieties, and when- 

 ever the two varieties were seen to compete for a female, the 

 black one was successful." It does not appear what are the 

 proportionate numbers of the two kinds of males ; but they 

 are connected by intermediate forms. Now, on the supposition 

 that the black form was the result of deliberate choice on the 

 part of the female, the black males ought to be the most 

 numerous ; furthermore, there should not be a large series of 

 intermediate forms ; the despised males at one end of the 

 series ought to have ceased to be ; it can hardly be suggested 

 that this has been the case, and that there has been a gradual 

 blackening of the males, because the unpojjular males are 

 coloured like the females, and were thus probably the start- 

 ing-point of the series of changes. While admitting the great 

 value of Mr. and Mrs. Peckham's investigations, it would be 

 desirable that some experiments like those of M. Plateau's 



