The Courtship of Animals

Hutchinson’s Nature Library
THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS

Plate 1.
LOVE-MAKING.
Frontispiece.
BY W. P. PYCRAFT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM: FELLOW OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; ASSOCIATE OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY: MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE; MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION; HON. MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION; ETC., ETC. Author of “A History of Birds,” “The Natural History Museum,” “Pads, Paws and Claws,” “The Infancy of Animals,” etc., etc., etc. With 40 Plates on art paper Containing over 80 Illustrations THIRD EDITION LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW
I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO H. ELIOT HOWARD WHOSE OBSERVATIONS OF THE COURTSHIP OF BIRDS RECORDED IN HIS “HISTORY OF THE BRITISH WARBLERS” CONSTITUTE A BEACON FOR ALL ENGAGED IN THE STUDY OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
That “one touch of Nature which makes the whole World kin” is surely nowhere more obvious than in the “Courtship” of Animals. For the “Beasts that Perish,” no less than Man himself, are stirred by the same emotions; the Fever of Love runs as high in them as in ourselves; and its modes of expression are not so different, though they may superficially appear to be so. The nature of these differences and their interpretation, it is the purpose of this book to set forth.
Charles Darwin laid the foundation for the study of this phase of Animal behaviour in his masterly work on the “Descent of Man,” a work which has been much criticized and much misunderstood since Carlyle’s crude abuse of it as the “Gospel of Dirt.” Darwin was the first to show us that the fierce battles, and strange antics, which characterize so many of the “Lower Orders of Creation” under the exaltation of the Sexual emotions are manifestations fraught with tremendous consequences to the race.
The facts which he brought to light, and the discussions to which they have given rise, have, however, unfortunately been too commonly regarded as merely interesting to those who have a liking for Natural History.