Male animal

“ In other words, the male animal will tend to assume the characters of the female, in form and feature, the gelding, indeed, resembling the mare, not only in the ensemble of his appearance, but in his voice, which loses the resonance of the stallion’s, and his physiognomy, which becomes milder and less expressive ”

“ Likewise certain round or oval objects, discs, certain fruits and certain natural caves, were worshipped as representing the female generative organ. (The yoni of India.)
We also find that certain qualities of animal or vegetable nature were equally venerated, not because of their form, but because they stood for some quality desirable in the generation of mankind. Thus we find that some animals—the bull because of its strength and aggressive nature, the snake, perhaps because of its form or of its tenacity of life,—were male representatives of phallic significance. ”

“ The female is also bearded and tufted, but the hair, which in the male looks like the mane of the lion, in the female is but slightly developed.
It is so powerful and active an animal, that an adult male which lived for some time in the Zoological Gardens was much dreaded by the keepers, not even the man who fed it liking to enter the enclosure if he could help himself. ”

“ Let us again hear the voice of Darwin himself. "Most male birds," he says, "are highly pugnacious during the breeding season, and some possess weapons especially adapted for fighting with their rivals. ”

“ Viewed with reference to activity, the animal is an advance on the plant, from which it departs by morphological and physiological variations suited to a more energized form of life; and the female may be regarded as the animal norm from which the male departs by further morphological variations. ”

“ On the other hand, I willingly admit that a great number of male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds, some fishes, reptiles, and mammals, and a host of magnificently coloured butterflies, have been rendered beautiful for beauty's sake. But this has been effected through sexual selection, that is, by the more beautiful males having been continually preferred by the females, and not for the delight of man. ”

“ On the whole, as far as I can judge, new characters are more apt to appear in the males of our domesticated animals than in the females (14/29. I have given in my 'Descent of Man' 2nd edition page 223 sufficient evidence that male animals are usually more variable than the females.) ”

“ When we behold two males fighting for the possession of the female, or several male birds displaying their gorgeous plumage, and performing strange antics before an assembled body of females, we cannot doubt that, though led by instinct, they know what they are about, and consciously exert their mental and bodily powers. ”

“ Such exceptions are so rare that they may be called abnormal, for the rule among birds is that where secondary sexual characters are displayed, ornamentation, voice, brilliant pattern and colour, pugnacity and amorousness are distinctive of the male. Secondary sexual differences of the same nature are abundant among mammals. The males are usually larger and have greater strength with corresponding bones and muscles, and courage and pugnacity. Special weapons of offence or defence are common and are usually limited to the males or more highly developed in them ”

“ Their care is to catch the varying, elusive personalities which dwell back of the luminous brain windows of the dog, the horse, the deer, or wrap themselves in reserve behind the inscrutable eyes of all the cats, or sit aloof in the gaze of the hawk and the eagle. The animal story at its highest point of development is a psychological romance constructed on a framework of natural science. ”

“ It is to be observed that these are instances where the inferiority of the male is an obvious measurable fact. In the mammals, the group of vertebrate animals to which man belongs, the male possesses measurably greater activity and size than does the female, and is provided with more powerful natural [Pg 167] weapons, such as teeth and horns. ”

“ Playful and impudent, it would often seat itself in my wife’s lap to have its head scratched and its back stroked, whilst a gentle movement of its wings and a soft murmur witnessed to the pleasure of its soul. I believed all this to proceed from its usual familiarity and love of being noticed, for I always looked upon the creature as a male on account of its skill in talking and singing (for amongst birds the females rarely sing or challenge one another by their notes, and the males alone solace their mates by their tuneful warblings) ... ”

“ Darwin's theory of Sexual Selection is briefly this:—He points out in much detail how the male is generally the most powerful, the most aggressive, the most ardent, and therefore the wooer, while the female is, as a rule, gentler, smaller, and is wooed or courted. ”

“ The males almost exclusively are used for coursing, for, as Mr. McNeill informs me, the females have net sufficient strength and weight to pull down a full-grown deer. From the names used in old legends, it appears, as I hear from Mr. Cupples, that, at a very ancient period, the males were the most celebrated, the females being mentioned only as the mothers of famous dogs. Hence, during many generations, it is the male which has been chiefly tested for strength, size, speed, and courage, and the best will have been bred from. ”

“ Sexual differences—Law of battle—Special weapons—Vocal organs—Instrumental music—Love-antics and dances—Decorations, permanent and seasonal—Double and single annual moults—Display of ornaments by the males.
Secondary sexual characters are more diversified and conspicuous in birds, though not perhaps entailing more important changes of structure, than in any other class of animals. I shall, therefore, treat the subject at considerable length. Male birds sometimes, though rarely, possess special weapons for fighting with each other. ”

“ I find astonishing likenesses between the perfectly human and the perfectly animal. Did you never see how beautiful and modest the faces of deer are; how chic and sensitive is the manner of a hound; nor the keen, warm look in the eye of a well-bred mare? Why, I’d rather be a good horse of blood and temper than half the fellows I know. You are not an animal lover as I am ”

“ It would seem, then, from this that the fighting must bear some relation to the particular area of ground in which it occurs; and unless it can be shown that there is some other factor in the external environment of the male, that is the direction in which we must look for the condition under which the instinct is rendered susceptible. ”

“ Recognition-marks and mimicry seem, therefore, to show that in the former case many animals, and in the latter the insect-eating birds, mammals, lizards, and other animals concerned, have considerable powers of perception and association.
Among other associations are those which are at the base of what I have termed preferential mating. We must remember how deeply ingrained in the animal nature is the mating instinct. We may find it difficult to distinguish closely allied species. ”

“ I am not, however, quite certain that this is always the case, for on other occasions I have seen a male fly off and alight near another, when they would immediately begin to fight, tugging at and pushing each other with their bills, in the most curious manner imaginable. ”

“ And in reply to a further question as to the particular nature of the stimulus to which the instinct would respond, we should be told—the presence of another male of the same species. Now the possible influence of the female on the course of the male's behaviour was the subject of inquiry in the second chapter, wherein we endeavoured to explain the hostility between males of the same species, and we came to the conclusion that it was not alone sufficient to account for the facts disclosed. ”

“ The two most formidable Animal Men were my Leopard-man and a creature made of hyena and swine. Larger than these were the three bull-creatures who pulled in the boat. Then came the silvery-hairy-man, who was also the Sayer of the Law, M’ling, and a satyr-like creature of ape and goat. There were three Swine-men and a Swine-woman, a mare-rhinoceros-creature, and several other females whose sources I did not ascertain. There were several wolf-creatures, a bear-bull, and a Saint-Bernard-man. ”

“ In this position, face to face (and it should be noted that only in the human family is this position of coitus possible! Among mere animals, the male is always upon the back of the female. They—mere animals—can never look each other in the eye and kiss each other during the act! This is another marked and very significant difference between human beings and all other animals in this regard) it is perfectly natural and easy for the organs to go together, when properly made ready, as here-before described. ”

“ We have followed the development of the male, under the action of love's selection, from his first insignificant position in the reproductive process; we have seen him becoming larger than the female, strong, jealous and masterful—in fact, a kind of fighting specialisation, with special weapons of defence for sex-battles. This is the general condition among mammals. Among birds another set of secondary character, that may be classed as beauty-tests, are more frequent. ”

“ Do you know of any lowly organised animals, in which the sexes are separated, and in which the male differs from the female in arms of offence, like the horns and tusks of male mammals, or in gaudy plumage and ornaments, as with birds and butterflies? I do not refer to secondary sexual characters, by which the male is able to discover the female, like the plumed antennae of moths, or by which the male is enabled to seize the female, like the curious pincers described by you in some of the lower Crustaceans. ”

“ Thus, among the male of the mammalia in which it is not entirely absent, it mostly assumes the form of abstaining from injury, while in the female of the same species it exists as a protecting and maintaining instinct. ”

“ The history of this peculiar herd-dog shows us how marvellously pliant the body and mind of this species has become under the conditions of civilization. The rude process of unconscious selection, acting without steadfastness of purpose or rationally developed skill, serves to sway the qualities of the animal this way or that to meet the ever-changing requirements of use or fancy. ”

“ The acquisition of mates does not depend entirely upon strength and victory in battle. Many male mammals have crests and tufts of hair, and other marks of beauty, such as bright colouring, are often conspicuous. ”

“ There be certain fierce and shy wild animals, male and female, which are scattered up and down our country-side.{94} They are sunburned to a sort of dull black, and walk bent towards the earth they delve; on straightening themselves, they show, it is true, a human face, and, in fact, they are men and women ”

“ We see likewise in all those creatures, of which the male is able to satisfy a great number of females, a more considerable superiority in the male, expressed by nature in his make and features, as well as fierceness, than is observed in other creatures, where the male is contented with one or two females. ”

“ You can almost forgive the male creature his compassionate contempt, as chucking her under the chin, he twitches it from her awkward little paw, and rounds, and tapers it off in the most ravishing manner, for durable use. ”

“ The beautiful colouring of male birds and fishes, and the various appendages acquired by males throughout the various orders below man, and which, so far as they themselves are concerned, serve no other useful purpose than to aid them in securing the favours of the females, have by the latter been turned to account in the processes of reproduction. ”

“ The play of all young animals is either an imitation or reflection of the search for food—the hunting instinct—or the love-making and sexual quarrels pertaining to reproduction, the pretended competition by the young for the favours of the opposite sex. ”

“ Physiologists have been much puzzled to account for the varieties of moral character in men, as well as for the remarkable similarity of habit and disposition in all the individual animals of every other respective species. A few brief sentences, perspicuously worded, and scientifically arranged, will enumerate all the characteristics of a lion, or a tiger, or a wolf, or a bear, or a squirrel, or a goat, or a horse, or an ass, or a rat, or a cat, or a hog, or a dog ”

“ The general idea which we form of an animal may be taken principally from the particular idea of a dog, a horse, and other beasts, which appear to us to act and move according to the impulse of their will, and which are besides composed of flesh and blood, seek after their food, have sexes, and the faculty of reproduction. ”

“ We will now turn to male birds which are not ornamented in any high degree, but which nevertheless display during their courtship whatever attractions they may possess. These cases are in some respects more curious than the foregoing, and have been but little noticed. ”

“ It is well known that, in addition to and apart from the primary sexual differences in animals, there are certain secondary characters by which the males, or occasionally the females, are conspicuous. ”

“ But when we come to such animals as the lion, the tiger, the leopard, the deer, the wolf or the wild boar, only a few thousand will be found to belong to one soul, while among domesticated animals such as sheep and oxen the number is smaller still. ”

“ We have the dog, the cat, the horse and other originally wild animals given into our care — brought to us for affection and help. Why? That we may train them out of their ferocity, and into a higher and more intelligent state of life — that we may evoke in them devotion, affection and intellect. ”