SEXUAL SELECTION 715 



various other ornamental appendages, we are led by anal- 

 ogy to the same conclusion, namely, that they have been 

 acquired through sexual selection, although transmitted 

 to both sexes. That conspicuous and diversified colors, 

 whether confined to the males or common to both, sexes, 

 are as a general rule associated in the same groups and 

 sub-groups with other secondary sexual characters serving 

 for war or for ornament, will be. found to hold good, if 

 we look back to the various cases given in this and the 

 last chapter. 



The law of equal transmission of characters to both 

 sexes, as far as color and other ornaments are concerned, 

 has prevailed far more extensively with mammals than with 

 birds; but weapons, such as horns and tusks, have often 

 been transmitted either exclusively or much more perfectly 

 to the males than to the females. This is surprising, for, 

 as the males generally use their weapons for defence against 

 snemies of all kinds, their weapons would have been of ser- 

 vice to the females. As far as we can see, their absence in 

 afhis sex can be accounted for only by the form of inheri- 

 tance which has prevailed. Finally, with quadrupeds the 

 contest between the individuals of the same sex, whether 

 peaceful or bloody, has, with the rarest exceptions, been 

 confined to the males; so that the latter have been modi- 

 fied through sexual selection, far more commonly than the 

 females, either for fighting with each other or for alluring 

 the opposite sex. 



