The Descent of Man

tion, before given, is possible; namely, that the
males which varied and became bright, whilst
they were young and inexperienced, would
have been exposed to much danger, and would
generally have been destroyed; the older and
more cautious males, on the other hand, if they
varied in a like manner, would not only have
been able to survive, but would have been favoured
in their rivalry with other males. Now
variations occurring late in life tend to be
transmitted exclusively to the same sex, so that
in this case extremely bright tints would not
have been transmitted to the females. On the
other hand, ornaments of a less conspicuous
kind, such as those possessed by the Eared and
Cheer pheasants, would not have been dangerous,
and if they appeared during early youth,
would generally have been transmitted to both
sexes.
In addition to the effects of the partial transference
of characters from the males to the fema-