[October 
626 Correspondence. 
be inferred from the other. But it is not sufficiently clear which 
is cause and which is effect. Is the physical superiority of the 
male an indirect result of polygamy, the perpetuation of the 
species being left to those individuals which prove victorious in 
the struggle for the possession of the females ? Or is polygamy 
a consequence of the physical superiority of the males due to 
some other cause ? If the former, we ask why the rivalry be- 
tween the males, which is more or less common to all mam- 
malian species, has not in all cases produced a marked excess of 
size and strength, and ultimately led to polygamy ? If the latter, 
we have still to ask why the physical superiority of the male 
should in some species be so much more marked than in others ? 
An Ex- Darwinian. 
[Polygamy seems to depend upon gregarious habits, and upon 
an ample and constant supply of food. Hence it is practically 
confined to phytophagous and omnivorous animals. — E d. J. S.] 
