SEXUAL SELECTION 465 



But the bright colors with which so many lizards are orna- 

 mented, as well as their various curious appendages, were 

 probably acquired by the males as an attraction, and then 

 transmitted either to their male ofEspring alone, or to both 

 sexes. Sexual selection, indeed, seems to have played al- 

 most as important a part with reptiles as with birds; and 

 the less conspicuous colors of the females in comparison 

 with the males cannot be accounted for, as Mr. Wallace 

 believes to be the case with birds,''by the greater exposure 

 of the females to danger during incubation. 



