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 
