4. But you admit that variations appearing in one sex are transmitted
(often) to that sex only: there is therefore nothing to prevent Natural
Selection acting on the two sexes as if they were two species.
5. Your objection that the same protection would to a certain extent be
useful to the male, seems to me utterly unsound, and directly opposed to
your own doctrine so convincingly urged in the "Origin," "_that Natural
Selection never can improve an animal beyond its needs_." So that
admitting abundant variation of colour in the male, it is impossible
that he can be brought by Natural Selection to resemble the female
(unless _her_ variations are always transmitted to _him_), because the
_difference_ of their colours is to balance the _difference_ in their
organisations and habits, and Natural Selection cannot give to the male
_more_ than is needed to effect that balance.
6. The fact that in almost all protected groups the females perfectly
resemble the males shows, I think, a tendency to transference of colour
from one sex to the other when this tendency is not injurious.
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