SEXUAL SELECTION. 239 



WHY THE MALE PLATS THE MOBB ACTIVE PABT IN 

 COUETING. 



P " 222 ^® ^'■^ 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 active part in court- 

 ship. It would be no advantage, and some loss of power, 

 if each sex searched for the other ; but 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 sbamens ; 

 and, in the Algce, etc., by the locomotive power of the 

 antherozooids. "With lowly-organized aquatic animals, 

 permanently affixed to the same spot, and having their 

 sexes separate, the male element is invariably brought to 

 the female ; and of this we can see the reason, for even 

 if the ova were detached before fertilization, and did 

 not require subsequent nourishment or protection, there 

 would yet be greater difficulty 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 element in this way, it 

 is natural that any of their descendants, which rose in 

 the scale and became locomotive, should retain the same 

 habit ; and they would approach the female as closely as 

 possible, in order not to risk the loss of the fertilizing 

 element in a long passage of it through the water. With 

 some few of the lower animals, the females alone are 

 fixed, and the males of these must be the seekers. But 



