The choice of a mate.

  • Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario), 1882-1971.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The choice of a mate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ANIMAL ABERRATIONS medical aids, tend to create a standardized type. Aberrations are usually eliminated, whether sub-normal or conspicuously super normal, unless either state means better adaptation. 1 And this process is so rigorous that the young, whether human or animal, set loose to choose, can hardly err. The tendency of like to attract like, which I shall deal with fully in the sequel, moreover, prevents misalliances of a gross character. It is true that among some animals exceptions to this rule have been observed. I have myself witnessed a male turkey trying to fertilize a domestic hen. I have also noticed strange antics between male dogs and female cats and vice-versâ , when bred under one roof. J. C. Huzeau speaks of a much-married drake who nevertheless frequently tried to fertilize a domestic hen, and of a dog who pursued a sow (in season) for hours, without success however. 2 Darwin records similar instances betv/een blackbirds and thrushes, black grouse and pheasants, and cases of the pairing of distinct species and varieties in domestication—geese, ducks, domestic fowls, etc. ; but ascribes these irregularities to the exceptional conditions of the animals at the time, or to “vitiated instincts ”. 3 Lord Lymington also informs me that game bantam-cocks have been known to try to pair with pigeons on his home-farm near Basingstoke. A more disturbing example of aberrant sexual choice is given by Rémy de Gourmont, who states that the male rabbit often pursues female hares and wears them out with his libidinous fury, though he knows of no fertilizations from such matings. 4 Truth to tell, such crosses have been successful, though the first cross, according to Darwin, proved difficult. 5 Nevertheless, generally speaking, it is true to say that there is a regular proportion between sexual attraction and zoological affinity, i.e. that like attracts like, 6 and that among the reasons 1 That sub-normality too may lead to better adaptation was pointed out by Herbert Spencer fifty years ago (Essays : Scientific, Political and Speculative, 1901, I, p. 379) and confirmed by J. B. S. Haldane recently in The Causes of Evolution (London, 1932, pp. 139, 152-154). * Etudes sur les Facultés Mentales des Animaux (Mons, 1872, II, p. 396). He also gives (p. 399) an interesting example of genuine sex-attraction excited in apes and monkeys at the Jardin des Plantes by a girl. 3 V.A.P.U.D., I, p. 245, and D.O.M., pp. 414-416. Darwin also speaks of “ several well authenticated cases of the female tiger breeding with the lion ” (V.A.P.U.D., II, p. 133), but these, of course, refer to animals in captivity. 4 P.L., p. 195. 5 V.A.P.U.D., I, p. 109. A. de Quatrefages (The Human Species, London, 1903, P- 76) mentions the difficulty of successfully crossing the rabbit and hare, and says it can only be done with human interference. 6 V.A.P.U.D., II, pp. 80-82, and Quatrefages (op. cit., p. 67).