Clt AP. VIII. 
SEXUAL SELECTIOX. 
277 
"’°uld not make the one sex different from the other, 
Unless indeed their taste for the beautiful differed ; but 
this is a supposition too improbable in the case of any 
tUl hnal, excepting man, to be worth considering. There 
at e, however, many animals, in which the sexes resemble 
ea ch other, both being furnished with the same orna- 
ments, which analogy would lead us to attribute to the 
a gency of sexual selection. In such cases it may be 
su ggested with more plausibility, that there has been a 
double or mutual process of sexual selection ; the more 
vigorous and precocious females having selected the 
more attractive anil vigorous males, the latter having 
mjected all except the more attractive females. But 
h‘°m what we know of the habits of animals, this view 
18 hardly probable, the male being generally eager to 
Pair with any female. It is more probable that the 
° l ’naments common to both sexes were acquired by one 
generally the male, and then transmitted to the off- 
ering of both sexes. If, indeed, during a lengthened 
P ei 'iod the males of any species were greatly to exceed 
the females in number, and then during another 
e ngthened period under different conditions the reverse 
" e re to occur, a double, but not simultaneous, process 
sexual selection might easily be carried on, by which 
the two sexes might be rendered widely different. 
We stall hereafter see that many animals exist, of 
"hich neither sex is brilliantly coloured or provided 
" 'Hi special ornaments, and yet the members of both 
8 exes or of one alone have probably been modified 
dirough sexual selection. The absence of bright tints 
other ornaments may bo the result of variations of 
Hie right kind never having occurred, or of the animals 
themselves preferring simple colours, such as plain black 
Ul white. Obscure colours have often- been acquired 
u 'ough natural selection for the sake of protection, and 
