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Show 3()8 DR. VAN DYCK ON SYRTAN STREET-DOGS. [Apr. 18, In order to ascertain whether female animals ever or often exhibit a decided preference for certain males, I formerly inquired from some of the greatest breeders in England, who had no thoretical views to support and who had ample experience ; and I have given their answers, as well as some published statements, in m y ' Descent of Man'1. The facts there given clearly show that with dogs and other animals the females sometimes prefer in the most decided manner particular males-but that it is very rare that a male will not accept any female, though such cases do occur. The following statement, taken from the ' Voyage of the Vega,'2 indirectly supports in a striking manner the above conclusion. Nordenskibld says:- " W e had two Scotch collies with us on the 'Vega.' They at first frightened the natives very much with their bark. To the dogs of the Chukches they soon'took the same superior standing as the European claims for himself in relation to the savage. The dog was distinctly preferred by the female Chukch canine population, and that too without the fights to which such favour on the part of the fair commonly gives rise. A numerous canine progeny of mixed Scotch-Chukch breed has arisen at Pitlekay. The young dogs had a complete resemblance to their father; and the natives were quite charmed with them." What the attractions may be which give an advantage to certain males in wooing in the above several cases, whether general appearance, such as colour and form, or vigour and strength, or gestures, voice, or odour, can rarely be even conjectured; but whatever they may be, they would be preserved and augmented in the course of many generations, if the females of the same species or race, inhabiting the same district, retained during successive generations approximately the same general disposition and taste ; and this does not seem improbable. Nor is it indispensable that all the females should have exactly the same tastes : one female might be more attracted by some one characteristic in the male, and another female by a different one; and both, if not incompatible, would be gradually acquired by the males. Little as we can judge what are the characteristics which attract the female, yet, in some of the cases recorded by me, it seemed clearly to be colour; in other cases previous familiarity with a particular male ; in others exactly the reverse, or novelty. With respect to the first appearance of the peculiarities which are afterwards augmented through sexual selection, this of course depends on the strong tendency in all parts of all organisms to present slight individual differences, and in some organisms to vary in a plain manner. Evidence has also been given in m y book on Variation under Domestication showing that male animals are more liable to vary than females ; and this would be highly favourable to sexual selection. Manifestly every slight individual" difference and each more conspicuous variation depends on definite though unknown ^ x The Descent of Man, second edit. (1874), part ii. Cbap. xvii. pp. 522-5*25. See also Cbap. xiv., on choice in pairing shown by female birds, and on their appreciation of beauty. » ' The Voyage of the Vega,' Eng. translat. (1881), vol. ii. p. 97. |