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The Descent of Man

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y <strong>of</strong> Mammalia,' 1841, p. 460; see also pp. 475,<br />

523.)<br />

In these and many other monkeys, the beauty<br />

and singular arrangement <strong>of</strong> their colours, and<br />

still more the diversified and elegant arrangement<br />

<strong>of</strong> the crests and tufts <strong>of</strong> hair on their<br />

heads, force the conviction on my mind that<br />

these characters have been acquired through<br />

sexual selection exclusively as ornaments.<br />

SUMMARY.<br />

<strong>The</strong> law <strong>of</strong> battle for the possession <strong>of</strong> the female<br />

appears to prevail throughout the whole<br />

great class <strong>of</strong> mammals. Most naturalists will<br />

admit that the greater size, strength, courage,<br />

and pugnacity <strong>of</strong> the male, his special weapons<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fence, as well as his special means <strong>of</strong> defence,<br />

have been acquired or modified through<br />

that form <strong>of</strong> selection which I have called<br />

sexual. This does not depend on any superiority<br />

in the general struggle for life, but on certain

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