an ashy-green, and the whole fish appears as though it were somewhat translucent and glowed with an internal incandescence.” After the breeding-season these colours all change, the throat and belly become of a paler red, the back more green, and the glowing tints subside. That with fishes there exists some close relation between their colours and their sexual functions we can clearly see;—firstly, from the adult males of certain species being differently coloured from the females, and often much more brilliantly;—secondly, from these same males, whilst immature, resembling the mature females;—and, lastly, from the males, even of those species which at all other times of the year are identical in colour with the females, often acquiring brilliant tints during the spawning-season. We know that the males are ardent in their courtship and sometimes fight desperately together. If we may assume that the females have the power of exerting a choice and of selecting the more highly-ornamented males, all the above facts become intelligible through the principle of sexual selection. On the other hand, if the females habitually deposited and left their ova to be fertilised by the first male which chanced to approach, this fact would be fatal to the efficiency of sexual selection; for there could be no choice of a partner. But, as far as is known, the female never willingly spawns except in the close presence of a male, and the male never fertilises the ova except in the close presence of a female. It is obviously difficult to obtain direct evidence with respect to female fishes selecting their partners. An excellent observer,[24] who carefully watched the spawning of minnows (_Cyprinus phoxinus_), remarks that owing to the males, which were ten times as numerous as the females, crowding closely round them, he could “speak only doubtfully on their operations. When a female came among a number of males they immediately pursued her; if she was not ready for shedding her spawn, she made a precipitate retreat; but if she was ready, she came boldly in among them, and was immediately pressed closely by a male on each side; and when they had been in that situation a short time, were superseded by other two, who wedged themselves in between them and the female, who appeared to treat all her lovers with the same kindness.” Notwithstanding this last statement, I cannot, from the several previous considerations, give up the belief that the males which are the most attractive to the females, from their brighter colours or other ornaments, are commonly preferred by them; and that the males have thus been rendered more beautiful in the course of ages.