The Descent of Man

duced seven fillies. Though I have very little
evidence on this head, analogy would lead to
the belief, that the tendency to produce either
sex would be inherited like almost every other
peculiarity, for instance, that of producing
twins; and concerning the above tendency a
good authority, Mr. J. Downing, has communicated
to me facts which seem to prove that this
does occur in certain families of short-horn cattle.
Col. Marshall (94. 'The Todas,' 1873, pp. 100,
111, 194, 196.) has recently found on careful
examination that the Todas, a hill-tribe of India,
consist of 112 males and 84 females of all
ages—that is in a ratio of 133.3 males to 100
females. The Todas, who are polyandrous in
their marriages, during former times invariably
practised female infanticide; but this practice
has now been discontinued for a considerable
period. Of the children born within late years,
the males are more numerous than the females,
in the proportion of 124 to 100. Colonel Marshall
accounts for this fact in the following inge-