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There is a scientific definition for the "female of the species," Frank thought, and it haunted him.

It had been a strange concept when he had learned it in college biology. For most higher animals -- mammals, say -- it was of course obvious who was a male and who was a female. And for many microscopic animals, asexual reproduction made the concept of male and female frivolous.

But some animals (usually microsopic, or so he understood) that reproduced sexually either had so little physical differentiation, and/or such complex reproductive habits, that it was necessary to come up with some other yardstick. And they had -- Frank imagined them coming up with it over a long night of wienerschnitzel and beer in 1890's Austria, studious men in long coats with beards and glasses, for some reason looking a lot like Sigmund Freud. Frank wasn't even sure of where, when, or by whom the definition had been written, but that was how he imagined it.

The female of the species is whichever partner in sexual reproduction makes the greater physical contribution to the offspring.

Frank sighed heavily as little Jacob nursed greedily at his man-teat.