I must break off for a moment here to warn the reader that whilst we find it difficult not to speak of these activities of the male bird and male animals generally in the same terms as we speak of such behaviours in human beings, there is yet a fundamental difference between the two cases which is apt to be lost sight of in consequence of the language used. When the musk-deer and other mammals attract the female by a scent, they have no consciousness or understanding of what they are doing. They do not as a matter of thought and intention produce their perfume any more than the birds produce their gay breeding plumage by "taking thought," or the stag his great antlers or the boar his tusks. Man is, on the contrary, in these matters, as in many others, ill-provided with natural automatically-growing mechanisms of life-saving or race-perpetuating importance. Though the behaviour of man in courtship is singularly like that of many animals, he has not inherited an automatically-produced bundle of charms to allure the other sex. He has had to think the matter out and to consciously and deliberately "make" or procure from external sources both perfumes and coloured decorations and arresting (often absurd and astounding) "costumes." The males of the most savage and primitive races of men are like the bigger apes, devoid of natural "charms"; they do not allure by sweet odours, by brilliant colours, nor by caressing musical voices. They have not these possessions as natural growths of their own bodies, and they have not yet learned—probably not yet desired—to "make" or to "procure" them. There is consequently a great gulf in kind between many of the details of animal and human courtship. We have no knowledge of how the extinct creatures between ape and man stood in this respect.
In the matter of forcible seizure the conduct of the primitive man is on precisely the same footing as that of the fur-seal. As to when he began to learn from the birds and to do consciously what they do unconsciously—no one knows. In regard to the fighting with other males—man appears at a very early period to have given up the use of his natural weapons, the teeth, and to have discovered the greater utility of sharp stones and heavy clubs, and thus to have again placed himself apart from male animals, which depend on and develop automatically their tusks, horns, and claws in consequence of their value in fighting. The great interest of the jaw of the man-like Eoanthropus from Piltdown is that it was still fitted with a large canine tooth like that of a gorilla, big enough to be useful in a fight with another Piltdowner [(see p. 287)]. But it dwindled, and in the course of time very early man-like extinct creatures were developed who had ceased to have big canines. They made use of chipped flints instead.
This substitution by man of "extraneous" weapons, decorations, and alluring appeals to the senses in place of those "intrinsic" to the animal body is all the more interesting, since we find that such substitution is already made by a number of birds, as, for instance, the magpie and the jackdaw, who collect all sorts of bright objects. The allied bower-bird of Australia makes a "play-run" or reception-room in which he places shells and bits of bone to attract the female, and the gardener bird of New Guinea clears a space in the scrub, roughly fences it and decorates it daily with bright-coloured flowers and mushrooms, freshly gathered and placed there by him, as any human bachelor may decorate his sitting-room for the delectation of his lady friends! It is a very noteworthy fact that these birds, which use extraneous decorative objects as lures, are themselves of dull plumage, but are allied to the wonderful group of Birds of Paradise, which show the greatest variety and brilliance of intrinsic decorative plumage known among birds. The love of brilliant decoration is equally keen in both groups, and is gratified in the one case by the use of extrinsic objects, in the other by the growth of intrinsic plumage. It appears that that strangely anthropoid bird—the penguin—or rather one species of penguin, familiar to Captain Scott and his companions in the Antarctic, has a similar habit of using an extraneous object as a gift or, shall we say, an excuse for an introduction when courting. The male penguin is shown in Mr. Poynting's wonderful cinema films of the Antarctic, picking up a well-shaped stone of some size and advancing with it in his beak to the lady penguin whom he has selected for his addresses. He places the stone at her feet, and retires a pace or two watching her. It is as though he said, "I am ready to build for you a first-class nest; best stones only used, of which this is a sample." If he is fortunate she looks at the stone and then at him, and without a word waddles to his side. Without more ado she accepts his proposal, and the work of constructing the stone-built nest is rapidly pushed on.
CHAPTER XXII
COURTSHIP AND DISPLAY
THE "displays" made by male birds and by some other animals which lead to the "fascination" of the females, and apparently to a condition similar to that which is called "hypnotic" in man, are very remarkable. One is tempted to say that these "displays" are made "for the purpose" of fascinating the female. But though that would be correct in describing similar proceedings on the part of a human "gallant," it is not strictly so in the case of animals, any more than it is true that a bird grows its fine plumage "for the purpose" of attracting the female. The male bird finds itself provided with fine feathers, and has probably a brief conscious pleasure in the fact, just as it has in singing, but it has, of course, no control over the growth of its feathers, nor conscious purpose in their production. Similarly, it has no knowledge or consciousness of a purpose in the antics of "display," nor in singing its melodious song, though certainly it is gratified, and has pleasurable sensations in the instinctive performances which it finds itself going through. The great French entomologist, Fabre, who has more minutely and thoroughly studied the wonderful proceedings of insects in regard to these matters and others, such as nest building, care and provision for young, deliberately says, "Ils ne savent rien de rien"—they know nothing about anything! And that is true with only small exception about even the highest animals until we come to man. Some of the higher animals have a brief and fleeting "consciousness" of what they are doing, and some of the hairy quadrupeds nearest to man have the power of "recollecting"; that is to say, have in a small degree conscious memory, and actually do reason and make use of their memory of their own individual experience to a very small and limited degree.
It is only in man that the power of reasoning—the conscious use of memory, of deciding on this or that course of action by a conscious appeal to the record of the individual's experience inscribed in the substance of the brain—becomes a regular and constant procedure. And in the lowest races of man—as, for instance, the Australian "black fellows"—this power is much less developed than in higher races, owing to the feebleness of their memory. Just as a little child or an old man recognizes the fact that his memory is bad, so does the Australian native confess to the white man that he cannot remember, and marvels at the memory of the white man, who, he says, can see both what is behind and what is to come.
"Displays" are often made by birds which have no very brilliant colours. The ruff—a bird of agreeable but sombre plumage—spreads out a ruff of feathers which grows round his neck in the breeding season and stands in a prominent position alone on the open ground with his head facing downwards and his long beak nearly touching the ground. These birds are to be seen behaving in this way at the Zoological Gardens in London. When thus posed they have a comical appearance of being absorbed in profound thought. Suddenly, after posing for perhaps ten minutes or more immovably in this attitude, the ruff starts into life, running in a wide circle and spreading his wings, and then as suddenly relapses into his pose, with downcast eyes and beak touching the ground. This, it appears, is all a challenge to any other ruff who ventures near him, and often results in a fight with another individual who is offended by his "swagger" and attacks him. It also is an invitation and attraction to the female or "reeve" who is on the look out for a mate.
The display of the bustard, though his feathers are only light brown and white, is a very strange and arresting performance. In ordinary circumstances his feathers are nicely smoothed down, and he looks neat and fit. But at the breeding season he behaves like Malvolio when he wore cross-garters to please his lady. He approaches two or three females who are quietly feeding, and throwing his head back and his chest forward, swelling his neck out with inspired air and reflecting his tail feathers inside out (so to speak) over his back, he makes the most extraordinary havoc of his previously neat costume. The feathers are made to stand up and reflected backwards in groups, and show their underlying white surfaces round the head, on the chest, and on the wings and back, so that he suggests the appearance of a portly old gentleman, in full evening dress, the worse for liquor, his high collar unbuttoned and flapping, his short "front" bulging and loose, whilst he maintains all the time a pompous and dignified pose strangely inconsistent with his disordered costume and hesitating gait. As he struts and poses the lady bustards, though intensely interested in his strange behaviour, make no sign, and continue pecking for food, as who should say with Beatrice, "I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you." After enduring this snubbing on several occasions and doggedly continuing to display his antics, the persistent bustard reaps his reward. One among the dissembling females can no longer keep up the pretence of indifference, and suddenly runs off, inviting him to follow her! The same general scheme of play is seen in the case of the peacock, who spreads his magnificent "train" around his head and neck (not to be confused with his tail, as it often is); in the case of the turkey, bubblyjock, or gobble-cock, who struts and shows off his coloured wattles and fine feathers; in that of the domestic fowl, who raises his head and neck, crows, and has a pretty trick of scraping the ground with his wing. Many other birds perform special antics suited to the display of their special plumage. Among the most varied and remarkable are those of the Birds of Paradise, which drop through the air, hang upside down on tree twigs, and pose themselves variously (often warbling the while seductive notes) according to the particular beauties which distinguish each species. Cranes and some other birds dance in groups at the mating season—really dance, making steps and jumps with the legs and movements of the wings—in rhythm.