Cttap. VIII. 
SEXUAL SELECTION. 
273 
The female, on the other hand, with the rarest excep- 
tion, is less eager than the male. As the illustrious 
Hunter 13 long ago observed, she generally “ requires to 
“ be courted ; ” she is coy, and may often be seen en- 
deavouring for a long time to escape from the male. 
Everv one who has attended to the habits of animals 
•/ 
will be able to call to mind instances of this kind. 
Judging from various facts, hereafter to be given, and 
from the results which may fairly be attributed to 
sexual selection, the female, though comparatively 
passive, generally exerts some choice and accepts one 
male in preference to others. Or she may accept, as 
appearances would sometimes lead us to believe, not 
the male which is the most attractive to her, but the 
one which is the least distasteful. The exertion of 
some choice on the part of the female seems almost as 
general a law as the eagerness of the male. 
We are naturally led to enquire why the male in so 
many and such widely distinct classes has been ren- 
dered more eager than the female, so that he searches 
for her and plays the more active part in courtship. 
It would be no advantage and some loss of power if 
both sexes were mutually to search for each other ; but 
why should the male almost always be the seeker ? 
With plants, the ovules after fertilisation have to be 
nourished for a time ; hence the pollen is necessarily 
brought to the female organs — being placed on the 
stigma, through the agency of insects or of the wind, 
has rudimentary wings, and never quits the cell in which it is born, 
whilst the female has well-developed wings. Audouin believes that 
the females are impregnated by the males which are born in the same 
cells with them ; but it is much more probable that the females visit 
other cells, and thus avoid close interbreeding. We shall hereafter 
meet with a few exceptional cases, in various classes, in which the 
female, instead of the male, is the seeker and wooer. 
13 4 Essays and Observations,’ edited by Owen, vol. i. 1861, p. 19i. 
VOL. I. T 
