The Descent of Man

they would tend to counteract each other; and
the final result would depend on whether a
greater number of females from being well protected
by obscure colours, or a greater number
of males by being brightly-coloured and thus
finding partners, succeeded in leaving more
numerous offspring.
In order to account for the frequent transmission
of characters to one sex alone, Mr. Wallace
expresses his belief that the more common form
of equal inheritance by both sexes can be changed
through natural selection into inheritance
by one sex alone, but in favour of this view I
can discover no evidence. We know from what
occurs under domestication that new characters
often appear, which from the first are transmitted
to one sex alone; and by the selection of
such variations there would not be the slightest
difficulty in giving bright colours to the males
alone, and at the same time or subsequently,
dull colours to the females alone. In this man-