SEXUAL SELECTION 293 



for a long time to escape from the male. Every observer 

 of the habits of animals will be able to call to mind in- 

 stances 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 pref- 

 erence 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 ac- 

 tive part in courtship. It would be no advantage and some 

 loss of power if each sex searched for the other; btit 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 of the stamens ; and 

 in the Algse, etc. , by the locomotive power of the anthero- 

 zooids. "With lowly organized aquatic animals, permanently 

 affixed to the same spot and having their sexes ssparate, 

 the male element is invariably brought to the female; and 

 of this we can see the reason, for even if the ova were de- 

 tached before fertilization, and did not require subsequent 

 nourishment or protection, there would yet be greater diffi- 

 culty in transporting them than the male element, because, 

 being larger than the latter, they are produced in far smaller 

 numbers. So that many of the lower animals are, in this 

 respect, analogous with plants." The males of affixed and 

 aquatic animals having been led to emit their fertilizing ele- 

 ment in this way, it is natural that any of their descendants, 



*" Prof. Sachs ("Lehrbucli der Botanik," 1810, a. 633), in speaking of the 

 male and female reproductive cells, remarks, "Verhalt sich die eine bei der 

 Vereiniging actiT, . . . die andere erscheint bei der Vereinigung passiv." 



