108 The American Naturalist. [February, 
4th, The struggle for the possession of the females having 
become a fixed and intensified habit, and the sexual disparity 
continuing to grow more pronounced, the following results might 
be expected : 
(a) The larger and lustier males would have their desire greatly 
intensified and their sexual powers appreciably increased. 
(2) The smaller and weaker males would be crowded to the 
. wall, and, in many instances, entirely deprived of all conjugal 
rights, which would be usurped by the larger and stronger animals. 
As a result of these conditions, certain males would obtain 
possession of several females, and deprive all other males of — 
access to them. This would be polygamy in the sense used in 
this paper. The whiskered seal (Erignathus barbatus), in which 
the male weighs two-and-one-half times as much as the female, 
and polygamy prevails, would illustrate this stage in the process. 
5th, Polygamy having become a fixed habit, all the conditions 
would tend to accelerate the divergence in size between the sexes. 
The selection by which the bulkiest and most pugnacious males 
would succeed in obtaining the females would be as rigorous as 
could well be conceived, and would result in very great sexual dis- 
parity. The males would become remarkably fierce and aggressive. 
The females, on the contrary, would become less and less disposed — 
to offer any resistance to the males, and hence a remarkable 
_ difference in temperament would eventually separate the sexes. 
The males would be intensely pugnacious, jealous, and aggressive, 
while the females would be gentle, indifferent, and passive.” 
Polygamy having become established, the causes or conditions 7 
which aided in its establishment would tend to its intensification 
to such an extent that some males would have scores of | Id ne Z 
in their harems, while others, indeed the majority, wou 
entirely deprived of marital rights. Such, in brief, is the state of 
* Curiously enough, Darwin quotes Captain Bryant to the effect that the gemei a 
| 
ding her g piace. 
