If we lay no emphasis on the implied emotional elements in the behavior of the spiders in this description--terms of emotion borrowed direct from human psychology--there still remain the several types of apparently significant reactions associated with courtship. The statements leave no room for doubt that vision plays an important rôle in the complex reflexes that lead gradually to successful mating. The Peckhams insist that the display of the male is always of a kind to bring before the female the special adornments of the male in whatever part of the body they may lie. The chance of subjective interpretation here is so great that unless the results are carefully checked up by studies of the attitudes assumed by males in species in which the males are without ornament, their interpretation must be taken with the greatest reserve. Assigning, as our authors do, so much by gratuitous implication to the emotional side of the picture prejudices one, perhaps too greatly, against accepting a special (even an implied intentional) exhibition of the specially ornamented parts. On the other hand, if it be conceded that the conspicuousness of the male is an element in the reaction, the very special adornments visible from the front might be supposed to enhance the effect produced in the female. Similar displays of special ornamentation in the male have been described both for birds and insects, but here, too, the question has been raised as to whether such exhibitions are more than an accidental accompaniment of the posturing of the male, for the same kind of behavior is known to occur in other cases where the male is unornamented and resembles the female. Had such a male special ornamentation it would no doubt appear to us that his behavior was “calculated” to display his ornaments. Dr. and Mrs. Peckham point out that their observations are entirely inconsistent with Wallace’s interpretation of the origin of secondary sexual characters. They find no evidence in favor of his view that the male possesses greater “vital activity.” On the contrary, the female is the more active and pugnacious of the two. They also object to Wallace’s statement of a total absence of any evidence that the female notices the display of the male. In spiders the females “_observe_” the males with close attention during their courtship. They point out also that, in spiders at least, as the female gradually becomes adult, a male if preferred will have a chance of mating with several females, “and as the mating season lasts for two or three weeks the more brilliant males may easily be selected again and again.” In regard to Wallace’s argument as to the distribution of accessory plumes in humming birds, the Peckhams point out that--