1028 The American Naturalist. [November, 
Resultant upon the first display of rivalry in a monogamous 
species, which by reason of sexual selection has developed strong 
sexual distinctions, would begin the destruction of many males, 
while the females would be exempted. Besides this the victorious 
males would drive away and disable many which would other- 
wise pair, and the females, as numerous as ever, would consort 
with the victor,—some by choice, the rest instinctively. He, 
having in the first instance undesignedly made himself lord, not 
of one but of many, would probably, in accordance with former 
habit, pair with one and disregard the rest, which latter, finding 
themselves widowed of a chance to mate elsewhere, would solicit 
his attentions, and in course of time receive them, because of 
their importunities rather than from his desire of self-gratification. 
Plural intercourse, thus persisted in, would be sure to become 
habitual, and the desire of gratification develop in like ratio. 
In this connection the statistics collected by Darwin of the 
numeric proportion of the sexes in birds show that, especially 
among the Gallinacez, females are less numerous than males, the 
most polygamous of these showing the greatest discrepancy. The 
proportion of male to female chicks, in a careful census of 1000 
bred during eight years, was as 94.7 to 100, an excess in favor 
of the females. But with respect to birds in a state of nature, 
Brehm, Gould, and others assert that the males are proportion- 
ately far more numerous, and an experiment with the eggs of 
wild pheasants resulted in the production of “ four or five males 
to one female.” The ruff (Machetes pugnar), sole polygamist 
among the Scolopacidz * exhibits similar disproportion. 
While it should be remembered that females, because of their 
shy, retiring disposition and different period of migration, are not 
so likely to be seen by an observer or captured by the fowler as 
the more conspicuous and daring males, it may not be doubted 
that the number of the former exceeds that of the latter in most 
instances. Nor can we deny that some connection is apparent 
between this numerical ratio of the sexes and the practice of 
polygamy. 
*'The Solitary Snipe (Scolopax major) is thought to be polygamous. See Lloyd's 
"Game Birds of Sweden,” 1867, p. 221 
