SEXUAL SELECTION. 
273 
■'HAP. VIII. 
The female, on the other hand, with the rarest excep- 
tion, is less eager than the male. As the illustrious 
Hunter 18 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. 
Every one who has attended to the habits of animals 
"’ill be able to call to mind instances of this kind, 
•■fudging from various facts, hereafter to be given, and 
Horn the results which may fairly be attributed to 
sexual selection, the female, though comparatively 
Passive, generally exerts some choice and accepts one 
^ale in preference to others. Or she may accept, as 
"Ppearances would sometimes lead us to believe, not 
Hie male which is the most attractive to her, but the 
°He which is the least distasteful. The exertion of 
s °tne 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 
5 nany and such widely distinct classes has been ren- 
dered more eager than the female, so that lie searches 
■°r her and plays the more active part in courtship. 
H would he no advantage and some loss of power if 
both sexes were mutually to search for each other ; hut 
"liy should the male almost always be the seeker ? 
With plants, the ovules after fertilisation have to be 
“nurislied for a time; lienee the pollen is necessarily 
brought to the female organs — being placed on the 
®tigma, through the agency of insects or ol the wind, 
J lns rudimentary wings, and never quits tlio cell in wkicli it is born, 
"hilst the female has well-developed wings. Andouin believes that 
lc -‘ females arc impregnated l>v the moles width arc born in the same 
with them; but it is much more probable that the females visit 
’‘ther cel j^ and thus avoid close interbreeding. We shall hereafter 
^W'et with a few exceptional eases, in various classes, in which the 
e niale, instead of the male, is the seeker and wooer. 
4 Essays and Observations/ edited by Owen, vol. i. 1801, p. 191. 
VOL. I. T 
