342 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



From the several foregoing cases we liave some reason 

 to believe tliat infanticide practiced in the manner above 

 explained tends to make a male- producing race; but I am 

 far from supposing that this practice in the case of man, 

 or some analogous process with other species, has been the 

 sole determining cause of an excess of males. There may 

 be some unknown law leading to this result in decreasing 

 races which have already become somewhat infertile. Be- 

 sides the several causes previously alluded to, the greater 

 facility of parturition among savages, and the less conse- 

 quent injury to their male infants, would tend to increase 

 the proportion of live-born males to females. There does 

 not, however, seem to be any necessary connection between 

 savage life and a marked excess of males ; that is, if we may 

 judge by the character of the scanty offspring of the lately 

 existing Tasmanians and of the crossed offspring of the 

 Tahitians now inhabiting Norfolk Island. 



As the males and females of many animals differ some- 

 what in habits and are exposed in different degrees to dan- 

 ger, it is probable that in many cases more of one sex than 

 of the other are habitually destroyed. But as far as I 

 can trace out the complication of causes, an indiscriminate 

 though large destruction of either sex would not tend to 

 modify the sex-producing power of the species. With 

 strictly social animals, such as bees or ants, which produce 

 a vast namber of sterile and fertile females in comparison 

 with the males, and to whom this preponderance is of para- 

 mount importance, we can see that those communities would 

 flourish best which contained females having a strong in- 

 herited tendency to produce more and more females; and 



from inquiries made from many breeders, it seems that the females are in some 

 respects more esteemed, though otherwise troublesome ; and it does not appear 

 that the female puppies of the best-hred dogs are systematically destroyed more 

 than the males, though this does sometimes take place to a limited extent. 

 Therefore I am unable to decide whether we can, on the above principles, ac- 

 count for the preponderance of male births in greyhounds. On the other hand, 

 we have seen that with horses, cattle, and sheep, which are too valuable for 

 the young of either sex to be destroyed, if there is any difference, the females 

 are slightly in excess. 



