94 Animal Life and Intelligence. 



crossing, as Darwin firmly believed, though it is doubted 

 by some observers nowadays, gives rise to vigorous seed- 

 lings, which consequently would have the best chance of 

 flourishing and surviving — would best resist elimination by 

 competition. So that we here have the double process at 

 work; the fairest flowers being selected by insects, and 

 those plants which failed to produce such flowers being 

 eliminated as the relatively unfit. 



If we turn to the phenomena of what Darwin termed 

 sexual selection, we find both selection and elimination 

 brought into play. By the law of battle, the weaker and 

 less courageous males are eliminated so far as the con- 

 tinuation of their kind is concerned. By the individual 

 choice of the females (on Darwin's view, by no means 

 universally accepted), the finer, bolder, handsomer, and 

 more tuneful wooers are selected. 



Let us again hear the voice of Darwin himself. " Most 

 male birds," he says, " are highly pugnacious during the 

 breeding season, and some possess weapons especially 

 adapted for fighting with their rivals. But the most 

 pugnacious and the best-armed males rarely or never 

 depend for success solely on their power to drive away or 

 kill their rivals, but have special means for charming the 

 female. "With some it is the power of song, or of emitting 

 strange cries, or of producing instrumental music ; and the 

 males in consequence differ from the females in their vocal 

 organs or in the structure of certain feathers. From the 

 curiously diversified means for producing various sounds, 

 we gain a high idea of the importance of this means of 

 courtship. Many birds endeavour to charm the females 

 by love-dances or antics, performed on the ground or in 

 the air, and sometimes at prepared places. But ornaments 

 of many kinds, the most brilliant tints, combs and wattles, 

 beautiful plumes, elongated feathers, top-knots, and so 

 forth, are by far the commonest means. In some cases, 

 mere novelty appears to have acted as a charm. The 

 ornaments of the males must be highly important to them, 

 for they have been acquired in not a few cases at the cost 



