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always prudent in their loves, but are apt to fling themselves away 
on curs of low degree. If reared with a companion of vulgar 
appearance, there often springs up between the pair a devotion 
which no time can afterwards subdue. The passion, for such it 
really is, becomes of a more than romantic endurance.”—(Darwin. 
Descent of Man. p. 523.) 
We may look at this matter from another point of view, 
by raising the question whether the different forms of 
married life adopted by animals are favourable to the 
isolation of similar variants ; and the inheritance of their 
special endowments by their offspring. 
Now if the general rule were a life-long monogamy, and 
if the pair lived to the same age, and if they united on the 
basis of the common possession of favourable variations, 
then we should have the precise conditions which we 
require. But it does not follow that these conditions will 
always be fulfilled. For probably the animals which are 
monogamists will unite on the basis of romantic love, and 
not on that of favourable variation. And in the case of 
the death of one there may be, and probably will be, 
a second marriage. There is also the case of a mono 
gamous union which lasts only for one season, so that one 
female may have in a life-time several husbands, in which 
case we have ample evidence that the offspring by the 
second husband often bears a marked resemblance to the 
first. 
We have a good illustration of that form of marriage 
known as polygamy, in which one husband has many 
wives, in the case of the seals. The following curious 
details on the courtship of one of the eared seals (Callo- 
rhinus ursinus) are given on the authority of Capt. Bryant, 
who had ample opportunities for observation. He says :— 
“ Many of the females on their arrival at the island where they breed 
appear desirous of returning to some particular male, and frequently 
climb the outlying rocks to overlook the rookeries, calling out and