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Show 2DG SEXUAL SELECTION: l\IA1\Il\1ALFJ. l'AI!T L£. "we have instinct excited by more colour, which hac1 "so stron()" an effe<..:t as to get the better of every" thing cl~e. But tho malo did not require this, tho "female being an animal somewhat similar to himscl.f~ '' was sufficient to rouse him." 33 Tn an early chapter we have seen that tho mental powers of the higher animals do not differ in kind,. though so greatly in degree, from the corresponding powers of man, especially of the lower and. barbarous races; and it would appear that even their taste for tho beautiful is not widely different from that of the Quaclrumana. As the negro of Africa raises the flesh on hi::; fe:\ce into parallel ridges " or cicatrices, high above tho "natural surface, which unsightly deformities, are con" sidered great personal attractions ;" 34-as negroes, as well as savages in many parts of the world, paint their faces with red, blue, "·hite, or black bars,-so the male mandrill of Africa appears to have acquired his deeply-furrowed and gaudily-coloured face from having been thus rendered attractive to the female. No donut it is to us a most grotesque notion that the posteriOJi end of tho body shonld have been coloured for tho sake of ornament even more brilliantly than the face; but this is really not more strange thnn that the tails of many birds should have been especially decorated. ·with mammals we do not at present possess any evidence that the males take pains to display their charms before the female; and the elaborate manner in which this is performed by male birds, is the strongest argument in favour of the belief that the females admire,. 33 'Es:nys and Observations by J. Hunter,' edited by Owen, l8G1, vol. i. p. Hl4. a~ i:lir, '.Buker,' The Nile Tributurics of Abyssinin,' 18G7. CHAP. XYJTf. ' EQUAL TRA.NSl\1ISSION. 297 or are excited Ly, the omaments and colours displayed. Lefore them. There is, however, a strihing parallelism. Lot ween mammals and birds in all their sccondarv sexual characters, namely in tbeir weapons for :fiD"hti~w with rival males, in their ornamental appcnclages,band i~ theit· colours. In both classes, when the male differs from the female, the you~g of both sexes almost always resemble each other, and m a large majority of cases resemble the adult female. In both classes the male assumes the characters proper to his sex shortly before tho ao·e f01~ reproduction ; if emasculated he either never ac~uires such characters or subsequently loses them. In both classe~ the chan go of colour is sometimes seasonal, and the huts of the naked parts sometimes become more vivid .during tho act of courtship. In both classes the male IS almost always more vividly or strongly coloured than the female, and is ornamented with lar()"er crests either of h~ir _?r feathers, or other appendag~s. In a few ex?ept10nal cases the female in both classes is more lugbly ornamented .than the male. "With many mammals, and at least m the case of one bird the male is more odoriferous than the female. In 'both classes the voice of the male is more powerful than that o.f the female. Considering this parallelism there can be httle doubt that the same cause, whatever it may be, has acted on mammals and birds; and the result, as far as ~rnameutal .characters arc concerned, may safely be attnbuted, as It appears to me, to the lono·-continued p:e~erence of the individuals of one sex fo/certain in<. hviduals of the opposite sex, combined with their success in leaving a larger number of offsprino· to inherit their superior attractions. b Eqttal i1·ansmission of 01'namental characte1's to both sexes.-With many birds, omament~, which analogy leads. |