298 
THE PRINCIPLES OF 
Part #• 
to their enemies, or of structures, such as great horns, 
which would have expended much vital force in 
their development. Variations of this kind occurring 
in the young males will almost certainly have been 
eliminated through natural selection. With the adult 
and experienced males, on the other hand, the advan- 
tage derived from the acquisition of such characters, 
in their rivalry with other males, will often have 
more than counterbalanced exposure to some degree 
of danger. 
As variations analogous to those which give to the 
male a superiority over other males in fighting, or in 
finding, securing, or charming the opposite sex, would, 
if they happened to arise in the female, be of no service 
to her, they will not have been preserved through 
sexual selection in this sex. We have good evidence 
that with domesticated animals variations of all kinds 
are soon lost through intercrossing and accidental 
deaths, it not carefully selected. Consequently, varia- 
tions of the above kind, if they chanced to arise h 1 
the female, would be extremely liable to be lost; 
and the females would he left unmodified, as far as 
these characters are concerned, excepting in so f» r 
as they were received through transference from the 
males. No doubt, if the females varied and trans- 
mitted their newly acquired characters to their off- 
spring of both sexes, the characters which were ad- 
vantageous to the males would be preserved through 
sexual selection, although they were of no use to 
the females themselves. In this case, both sexes would 
be modified in the same manner. But I shall here- 
after have to recur to these more intricate contin- 
gencies. 
Variations occurring late in life, and transmitted to 
one sex alone, have incessantly been taken advantage 
