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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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In considering this last case, if as before we take<br />

the plumage <strong>of</strong> the young as our guide, it<br />

would appear that both sexes have been rendered<br />

beautiful independently; and not that one<br />

sex has partially transferred its beauty to the<br />

other. <strong>The</strong> male apparently has acquired his<br />

bright colours through sexual selection in the<br />

same manner as, for instance, the peacock or<br />

pheasant in our first class <strong>of</strong> cases; and the female<br />

in the same manner as the female Rhynchaea<br />

or Turnix in our second class <strong>of</strong> cases.<br />

But there is much difficulty in understanding<br />

how this could have been effected at the same<br />

time with the two sexes <strong>of</strong> the same species.<br />

Mr. Salvin states, as we have seen in the eighth<br />

chapter, that with certain humming-birds the<br />

males greatly exceed the females in number,<br />

whilst with other species inhabiting the same<br />

country the females greatly exceed the males.<br />

If, then, we might assume that during some<br />

former lengthened period the males <strong>of</strong> the Juan<br />

Fernandez species had greatly exceeded the

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