170 Evolution and Adaptation 



which will at first appear extremely improbable ; but by the 

 facts to be adduced hereafter, I hope to be able to show that 

 the females actually have these powers. When, however, it 

 is said that the lower animals have a sense of beauty, it must 

 not be supposed that such sense is comparable with that of a 

 cultivated man, with his multiform and complex associated 

 ideas. A more just comparison would be between the taste 

 for the beautiful in animals, and that in the lowest savages, 

 who admire and deck themselves with any brilliant, glittering, 

 or curious object." 



Darwin did not close his eyes to the difficulties which the 

 theory had to contend against. One of the most formidable 

 of these objections is described in the following words : 

 " Our difficulty in regard to sexual selection lies in under- 

 standing how it is that the males which conquer other males, 

 or those which prove the most attractive to the females, 

 leave a greater number of offspring to inherit their superi- 

 ority than their beaten and less attractive rivals. Unless 

 this result does follow, the characters which give to certain 

 males an advantage over others could not be perfected and 

 augmented through sexual selection. When the sexes exist 

 in exactly equal numbers, the worst-endowed males will 

 (except where polygamy prevails) ultimately find females, 

 and leave as many offspring, as well fitted for their general 

 habits of life, as the best-endowed males. From various 

 facts and considerations, I formerly inferred that with most 

 animals, in which secondary sexual characters are well 

 developed, the males considerably exceeded the females in 

 number ; but this is not by any means always true. If the 

 males were to the females as two to one, or as three to two, 

 or even in a somewhat lower ratio, the whole affair would be 

 simple ; for the better-armed or more attractive males would 

 leave the largest number of offspring. But after investi- 

 gating, as far as possible, the numerical proportion of the 

 sexes, I do not believe that any great inequality in number 



