The Descent of Man

Several writers have objected to the whole theory
of sexual selection, by assuming that with
animals and savages the taste of the female for
certain colours or other ornaments would not
remain constant for many generations; that first
one colour and then another would be admired,
and consequently that no permanent effect
could be produced. We may admit that taste is
fluctuating, but it is not quite arbitrary. It depends
much on habit, as we see in mankind;
and we may infer that this would hold good
with birds and other animals. Even in our own
dress, the general character lasts long, and the
changes are to a certain extent graduated.
Abundant evidence will be given in two places
in a future chapter, that savages of many races
have admired for many generations the same
cicatrices on the skin, the same hideously perforated
lips, nostrils, or ears, distorted heads,
etc.; and these deformities present some analogy
to the natural ornaments of various animals.
Nevertheless, with savages such fashions do