The Descent of Man

protection; and it is possible that the females
alone of some species may have been modified
for this end. Although it would be a difficult,
perhaps an impossible process, as shewn in the
last chapter, to convert one form of transmission
into another through selection, there
would not be the least difficulty in adapting the
colours of the female, independently of those of
the male, to surrounding objects, through the
accumulation of variations which were from
the first limited in their transmission to the female
sex. If the variations were not thus limited,
the bright tints of the male would be deteriorated
or destroyed. Whether the females
alone of many species have been thus specially
modified, is at present very doubtful. I wish I
could follow Mr. Wallace to the full extent; for
the admission would remove some difficulties.
Any variations which were of no service to the
female as a protection would be at once obliterated,
instead of being lost simply by not being
selected, or from free intercrossing, or from