I.--_Among the Birds and Mammals_
Courtship and marriage among birds and mammals--Every form of a.s.sociation similar to human marriage--A high standard of love-morality among birds--Monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry--Cases of absolute profligate promiscuity--Suggestions of all the s.e.xual sins of humanity--The phenomena of courtship--The law of battle--Battles of mammals and male gallinaceae--The frenzy of love--Where supremacy in love is gained by force the males become stronger and better armed than the females--Importance of this--Gentler ways of wooing--aesthetic seductions--Courteous duels--The note of joy in love among birds--Affectionate partnerships lasting for life--Frequency of monogamy among birds--Co-operation of both s.e.xes in forming the home and caring for the young--The amatory dances of birds--Significance of dancing--Numerous ill.u.s.trations--The use of song and decorative plumage--Musical seduction--aesthetic constructions--The extraordinary power of s.e.x-hunger--General propositions.
II.--_Further Examples of Courtship, Marriage and the Family among Birds_
Darwin"s theory of s.e.xual-selection--Objections to this by Wallace and others--An explanation--The true object of courtship--The s.e.xual pa.s.sion the origin of social growth--A rough outline of society already established in the animal kingdom--The maternal and the paternal family--The former the most frequent--The importance of the female--Difference between the secondary s.e.xual characters of the male and the female--Doubt of the accepted view--Need for a further examination--Cases among birds in which the female equals or even exceeds the male in size and strength--Beauty tests of brilliant plumage--Numerous examples of almost identical likeness between the s.e.xes--This similarity in plumage occurs in some of the most brilliant of our birds--The interesting case of the phalaropes where the role of the s.e.xes is reversed--These facts point to an error in the accepted opinion as to the secondary s.e.xual characters--s.e.xual adornments cannot be regarded as a necessary and exclusive adjunct of the male--Prof. Lester Ward"s Gynaeocratic theory--Male efflorescence--Among the species in which male differentiation has gone farthest the males are bad fathers--Examples to prove this--The fathers devoid of affection belong to the less intelligent species--The conclusion--An extravagant growth of the secondary s.e.xual characters not favourable to the highest development of the species--The most oppressed females the most faithful wives--The highest development in the beautiful cases in which the s.e.xes are more alike, equal in capacity and co-operate together in the race-work--Individual fancies of females--The case of a female wild duck--Desire for s.e.xual variety--Conjugal fidelity modified by the conditions of life--Civilisation depraves birds--General observations--Love the great creative force.
CHAPTER V
COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY
I.--_Among the Birds and Mammals_
"The principle of "divergence of character" pervades all nature, from the lowest groups to the highest, as may be well seen in the cla.s.s of birds."--WALLACE.
A great step in advance is taken when we come to study the courtship and s.e.xual relationships of birds and mammals. There are many examples, in particular among birds, of a beautiful and high standard of love-morality. To the physical fondness of the s.e.xes for one another there is now added a wealth of what must be recognised as psychical attraction, which finds its expression in many diverse ways.
We shall find all forms of s.e.xual a.s.sociation, very similar to marriage in the human species. There are temporary unions formed for the purpose of procreation, after which the partners separate and cease to care for one another. Polygamy is frequent, polyandry also occurs, and there are many cases of absolute profligate promiscuity.
We shall, indeed, find the suggestion of all the s.e.xual sins of humanity, every form of coquetry, of love-battles, jealousy and the like. There are as well many examples of monogamic unions lasting for the lives of the partners. This is especially the case with birds.
Among the higher mammals polygamy is most common, but permanent unions are formed, especially among the anthropoid apes. Thus strictly monogamous marriages are frequent among gorillas and orang-utans, the young sometimes remaining with their parents to the age of six years, while any approach to loose behaviour on the part of the wife is severely punished by the husband.[50] We find both the matriarchate and patriarchate family; and we may observe the greatest difference in the conduct of the parents in their care of offspring. Even a rapid examination of these customs is worth while, for they cast forward many suggestions on our s.e.xual, domestic, and social relationships.
Let us take first the phenomena of courtship.
It is possible to give only the briefest outline of this fascinating subject. We will begin with the law-of-battle. Courtship without combat is rare among mammals; it is less common in many species of birds. Special offensive and defensive weapons for use in these love-fights are found; such are the larger canine teeth of many male mammals, the antlers of stags, the tusks of elephants, the horns of antelopes, goats, oxen and other animals, while among birds the spurs of the c.o.c.k and allied species are examples of s.e.xual weapons.[51]
"The season of love is the season of battle," says Darwin. To those who understand love there will be no cause of surprise in these procreative explosions. There can be no doubt that such combats are a stimulus to mutual s.e.xual excitement in the males who take part in them and the female who watches them. Throughout Nature love only reaches its goal after tremendous expenditure of energy. Courtship is the prelude to love. The question is--what form it shall take? It is this that even yet we have not decided. But the importance of courtship cannot be overlooked. We must regard it as the servant of the Life-force. In the fine saying of Professor Lloyd Morgan,[52] "the purpose of courtship reveals itself as the strong and steady bending of the bow, that the arrow may find its mark in a biological end of the highest importance in the survival of a healthy and vigorous race."
Even the most timid animals will fight desperately under the stimulus of s.e.x-pa.s.sion. Hares and moles battle to the death in some cases; squirrels and beavers wound each other severely. Seals grapple with tooth and claw; bulls, deer and stallions have violent encounters, and goats use their curved horns with deadly effect.[53] The elephant, pacific by nature, a.s.sumes a terrible fury in the rutting season.
Thus, the Sanskrit poems frequently use the simile of the elephant goaded by love to express the highest degree of strength, n.o.bility, grandeur and even beauty.[54] It is hardly necessary to point out that in these love-conflicts we may find the sources of our own brute pa.s.sions of jealousy, and the origin of duels, murders and all the violent crimes committed by men under the excitement of s.e.xual emotion--the tares among the wheat of love that drive men mad and wild.
In birds it is among the gallinaceae that love incites the male with warlike fury. The barn-door c.o.c.k is the type of the jealous male--amorous, vain and courageous.[55] It must be noted that wheresoever supremacy in love is obtained by force the male has necessarily become, through the action of selection, stronger and better armed than the female. Among birds, where the law of battle largely gives place to a gentler wooing, there are many species in which the female is larger and stronger than the male, and a much greater number where there is no appreciable difference between the s.e.xes. These prove what we have already established among the invertebrates, that there is no necessary correlation between weakness and the female s.e.x. But to this question, so important in its bearing on the relative position of the s.e.xes, I shall return later.
The acquisition of mates does not depend entirely upon strength and victory in battle. Many male mammals have crests and tufts of hair, and other marks of beauty, such as bright colouring, are often conspicuous. These are used to attract the females. The incense of odoriferous glands, which become specially functional during the breeding season, are another frequent means of s.e.xual attraction.[56]
Even many of the amatory duels are not really fights between rivals.
They are rather parades, or tournaments, used by the males as a means of displaying their beauty and valour to the females. This is frequent among the contests of birds, as, for instance, the grouse of Florida (_Tetras cuspido_), which are said to a.s.semble at night to fight until morning with measured grace, and then to separate, having first exchanged formal courtesies.[57]
It is among birds that the notes of joy in love break out with a wonderful fascination. They are the most perfect of lovers; strength is often quite set aside, and the eye and ear of the mate alone is appealed to. The males (and also, in some cases, the females) use many aesthetic appeals to stimulate pa.s.sion, such as dancing, beauty of plumage, and the art of showing it, as well as sweetness of song and diverse love-calls. There are numerous examples of affectionate partnerships between the s.e.xes, in some cases lasting for life. The female Illinois parrot, for instance, rarely survives the death of her mate. Similarly the death of either s.e.x of the _panurus_ is said to be fatal to its companion. The affection of these birds is strong; they always perch side by side, and when they fall asleep one of them, usually the male, covers the other with its wing. The couples of the golden woodp.e.c.k.e.rs and doves live in perfect unison. Brehm records the case of a male woodp.e.c.k.e.r who, after the death of his mate, tapped day and night with his beak to recall the absent one, and when at last discouraged, he became silent and never recovered his gaiety.[58]
According to some estimates monogamy prevails among ninety per cent of birds.[59] This is explained by the steady co-operation of both s.e.xes in forming the home and caring for the young, for it is surely the working together which causes their love to outlast the excitement of the procreative season. Sometimes we find this affection flowing out into a wider altruism, extending beyond the family to the social group; which again is surely at once the condition and result of these beautiful and practical love-partnerships.
Those who have read the absorbing pages of Darwin devoted to the consideration of the s.e.xual characters of birds, or know the examples given by Buchner, Audubon, Epinas, Wallace and other naturalists, or, better still, those who have watched and noted for themselves the love-habits of birds, will find it impossible to withhold admiration for the poetic character of many of these courtships and marriages, which put too often our own human matings to utter shame.
Let us look first at the love-dances. Dancing as a means of attracting the right pitch of pa.s.sion in the male and the female has always been used in the service of the s.e.xual instinct. It gives the highest and most complex expression of movement, and may be said to have been evolved by love from the more brutal courtships of battle display.[60]
The characteristic features of the amatory dances of birds are well known; they may be witnessed frequently during the pairing season. The male blackbird, for instance, is full of action as he woos his mate; he flirts his tail, spreads his glossy wings, hops and turns; chases the hen, and all the time chuckles with delight. Similar antics are performed by the whitethroat. The male redwing, again, struts about before his female, sweeping the ground with his tail, and acting the dandy.[61] The crested duck raises his head gracefully, straightens his silky aigrette, struts and bows to his female, while his throat swells and he utters a sort of guttural note.[62] The common shield duck, geese, wood-pigeons, carrion-vultures, and many other birds have been observed to dance, spread their tails, chase one another, and perform many strange courting parades. A careful observer of birds, Mr. E. Selous, who is quoted by Havelock Ellis,[63] has found that all bird dances are not nuptial, but that some birds--the stone-curlew (or great plover), for example--have different kinds of dancing. The nuptial dances are taken part in by both the male and female, and are immediately followed by conjugation; but there are as well other dances or antics of a non-s.e.xual character, which may be regarded as social, and these too are indulged in by both s.e.xes.
The love-fights of swallows, linnets and kingfishers, and the curious aerial evolution of the swift are similar manifestations of vigour and delight in movement[64] as a s.e.xual excitant to pairing. Some male doves have a remarkable habit of driving the hen for a few days before she lays the eggs. On these occasions his whole time is spent in keeping her on the move, and he never allows her to settle or rest for a minute except on the nest.[65]
This last case affords a striking ill.u.s.tration of the real object of all these elaborate movements. The male albatross, an ugly and dull-coloured bird,[66] during courtship stands by the female on the nest, raises his wings, spreads his tail, throws up his head with the bill in the air, or stretches it straight out or forwards as far as he can, and then utters a curious cry.[67] But the most interesting example that I have been able to find recorded of dancing among birds is the habit of waltzing, common to the male, and in a lesser degree to the female ostrich. It is thus described by S. Cronwright Schreiner.[68]
"After running a few yards they (the ostriches) will stop, and with raised wings spin round rapidly for some time until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs.... Vigorous c.o.c.ks "roll" when challenging to fight or when wooing a hen. The c.o.c.k will suddenly b.u.mp down on his knees (ankle joints), open his wings, and then swing them alternately backwards and forwards as if on a pivot. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all, in fact he seems so preoccupied that if pursued one may often approach unnoticed. Just before "rolling," a c.o.c.k, especially if courting a hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright and erect, the tail half dropped and all his body feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the neck for nearly the whole length, and the plumes showing separately like an open fan. In no other att.i.tude is the splendid beauty of his plumage displayed to such advantage."
In this case it is very suggestive to find that it is the male ostrich who takes upon himself the task of hatching and rearing the young. Perhaps this accounts for the female ostrich being able to dance as well as the male. There are very few examples of birds who are bad fathers. Often the male rivals the female in love for the young; he is in constant attendance in the vicinity of the nest; he guards, feeds and sings to the female, and sometimes shares with her the duty of incubation. This is done by the male wood-pigeon, missel-thrush, blue martin, the buzzard, stone-curlew, curlew, dottrel, the sandpiper, common gull, black-coated gull, kittiwake, razorbill, puffin, storm-petrel, the great blue heron and the black vulture. Among these birds it is usual for the family duties to be performed quite irrespective of s.e.x, and the parent who is free takes the task of feeding the one who is occupied. As soon as one family is reared many birds at once burden themselves with another. Audubon records the case of the blue bird of America, who works so zealously that two or three broods are reared at the same time, the female sitting on one clutch, while the male feeds the young of the preceding brood.[69]
Next in importance to dancing and movement in the aid of courtship among birds is their use of song and display of decorative plumage.
With them it would seem, even more than among the mammals or with man, s.e.xual desire raises and intensifies all the faculties, and lifts the individual above the normal level of life. The act of singing is a pleasurable one, an expression of superabundant energy and joyous excitement. Thus love-songs, serving first probably as a call of recognition from the male to the female, came to be used as a means of seduction. Every one is familiar with the exquisite lyrical tournaments of our nightingales; their songs during the love season do not cease by day or by night, so that one wonders when sleep can be taken; but as soon as the young are hatched the music ceases, and harsh croaks are the only sound left.[70] The song of the skylark, with its splendid note of freedom, is more melodious and more frequent in the season of love"s delirium.[71] Another bird, the male of the weaver bird, builds an abode of pleasure for himself, wherein he retires to sing to his mate.[72] A very beautiful case of the use of these love-calls by the tyrant bird (_Pitangus Bolivia.n.u.s_) is recorded by W.H. Hudson.[73]
"Though the male and female are greatly attached they do not go afield to hunt in company, but separate to meet at intervals during the day. One of the couple (say the female) returns to the trees where they are accustomed to meet, and after a time becoming impatient or anxious at the delay of her consort, utters a very long, clear call-note. He is perhaps a quarter of a mile away, watching for a frog beside a pool, or beating over a thistle bed, but he hears the note and presently responds with one of equal power. Then, perhaps, for half-an-hour, at intervals of half-a-minute, the birds answer each other, though the powerful call of the one must interfere with his hunting. At length he returns: then the two birds, perched close together, with their yellow bosoms almost touching, crests elevated, and beating the branch with their wings scream their loudest notes in concert--a confused, jubilant noise that rings through the whole plantation. Their joy at meeting is patent, and their action corresponds to the warm embrace of a loving human couple."
Some birds, who are ill-endowed from a musical point of view, have their wing feathers or tails peculiarly developed and stiffened, and are able to produce with them a strange snapping or cracking sound.
Thus several species of snipe make drumming or "bleating"
noises--something like the bleat of a goat--with their narrowed tails as they descend in flight.[74] Magpies have a still more curious method of call, by rapping on dry and sonorous branches, which they use not only to attract the female, but also to charm her. We may say that these birds perform instrumental music.[75]
The exercise of vocal power among birds seems to be complementary to the development of accessory plumes and ornaments. All our finest singing birds are plainly coloured, with no crests, neck or tail plumes to display. The gorgeously ornamented birds of the tropics have no song, and those which expend much energy in display of plumage, as the turkey and peac.o.c.ks, have comparatively an insignificant development of voice.[76] The extraordinary manner in which birds display their plumage at the time of courting is well known. Let us take one example--the courtship of the Argus pheasant. This bird is noted for the extreme beauty of the male"s plumage. Its courtship has been beautifully observed by H.O. Forbes--[77]
"It is the habit of this bird to make a large circus, some ten or twelve feet in diameter, in the forest, which it clears of every leaf and twig and branch, till the ground is perfectly swept and garnished. On the margin of this circus there is invariably a projecting branch or high arched rest, at a few feet elevation from the ground on which the female bird takes its place, while in the ring the male--the male bird alone possesses great decoration--shows off all its magnificence for the gratification and pleasure of his consort, and to exalt himself in her eyes."
In this picture we have all the characteristic features of the display of personal beauty in which many birds delight. Any one may see such performances for themselves. The male chaffinch, for instance, will place himself in front of the female that she may admire at her ease his red throat and blue head; the bullfinch swells out his breast to display the crimson feathers, twisting his black tail from side to side; the goldfinch sways his body, and quickly turns his slightly expanded wings first to one side, then to the other, with a golden flashing effect.[78] Even birds of less ornamental plumage are accustomed to strut and show themselves off before the females. Birds often a.s.semble in large numbers to compete in beauty before pairing.
The _Tetras cuspido_ of Florida and the little grouse of Germany and Scandinavia do this. The latter have daily amorous a.s.semblies, or _cours d"amour_, of great length, which are renewed every year in the month of May.[79] It seems certain that this aesthetic display is conscious and pre-meditated; for while most pheasants parade before their females, two of the species--the _Crossoptilon auritum_ and the _Phasia.n.u.s Wallichii_--which are of dull colour, refrain from doing so, being apparently conscious of their modest livery.[80]
Certain birds are not content alone with the display of natural ornament, but make use of further aesthetic appeal in the construction of their homes in a truly beautiful manner. Some species of humming-birds are said to decorate the exterior of their nests in great taste with lichens, feathers, etc. The bower-birds of Australia construct bowers on the ground, ornamented with sh.e.l.l, feathers, bones and leaves. Both s.e.xes take part in the building of these abodes of love, which are used for the courting parades. But an even more delightful example of the rare s.e.xual delicacy in courtship is recorded by M.O. Beccari of a bird of Paradise of New Guinea, the _Amblyornis inornata_.[81]
"This wonderful and beautiful bird constructs a little conical hut to protect his amours, and in front of this he arranges a lawn, carpeted with moss, the greenness of which he relieves by scattering on it various bright coloured objects, such as berries, grains, flowers, pebbles and sh.e.l.ls. More than this, when the flowers are faded, he takes great care to replace them, so that the eye may be always agreeably flattered. These curious constructions are solid, lasting for several years, and probably serving for several birds."
It is, I think, by such cases as these that we may come to realise the extraordinary power of s.e.x-hunger. It seems to me that many of us are still walking in sleep; fear holds our eyes from the truth. But as we look back to the complex and often beautiful manifestations of love"s actions among our animal ancestors, we begin to perceive that una.n.a.lysable something called "beauty," which is the glory that has arisen out of that first simple impelling hunger, which drove the male cell and the female cell to unite. This is how I see things--Life knows no development except through Love.
II.--_Further Examples of Courtship, Marriage, and the Family among Birds_
It is especially upon the efflorescence of male beauty among birds that Darwin founded his celebrated theory of s.e.xual selection. The motley of display seems endless, beautiful plumes, elongated feathery tresses, neck-ruffs, breast-shields, brightly-coloured cowls and wattles occur with marvellous richness of variety.
Now, can we accept the Darwinian theory, and believe that all these appendages of beauty, as well as the s.e.xual weapons, powers of song and movement, have been developed through the preference of the females? the stronger and more ornamental males becoming in this way the parents of each successive generation. Wallace, as is well known, opposed Darwin"s view, preferring to regard s.e.xual selection as a manifestation of natural selection. He has been followed by other naturalists, who have denied this creative power of love, being unable to credit conscious choice by the females of the most gifted males.
The controversy on the question has been long and at times violent.
Yet, it would seem, as so often happens in all disagreements, that the difference in opinion is more apparent than founded on the facts.
There is really no difficulty if once we understand the true significance of courtship. What this is I have tried to make clear.
During the excitement of pairing the male birds are in a condition of the most perfect development, and possess an enormous store of superabundant vitality; this, as may readily be understood, may well express itself in brilliant colours and superfluities of ornamental plumage, as also in song, in dancing, in love tournaments and in battles. The fact that we have to remember is that the female is most easily won by the male, who, being himself most charged with s.e.x desire--and through this means reaching the finest development--is able to create a corresponding intoxication in her, and thus, by producing in both the most perfect condition, favours the chances of reproduction. There is no need whatever to suppose any conscious choice or special aesthetic perception on the part of the females.
Great effects are everywhere produced in Nature by simple causes. The female responds to the stimulus of the right male at the right moment--that is really the whole matter.[82]
In these instances (brought forward in the previous section of this chapter) of the universal hunger of s.e.x, which are fairly typical and are as complete as my s.p.a.ce will allow, certain facts have become clear. In the first place we have seen something of the strong driving of the procreative function, which is the guarantee of the continuation and development of life. The importance of the result to be gained explains the diverse and elaborate phenomena of courtship.
The higher we ascend in the animal kingdom the stronger does the s.e.x-appet.i.te become: it vibrates in the nerve-centres, giving rise to violent emotions which intensify all the physical and psychic activities. Love is the great creative force. It awakens impressions and desires in the individual, giving rise to what may be called "experiments in creative self-expression," to the energy of which we owe the varied and marvellous phenomena in animal life.
A further cause arising from the development of love is certainly of not less importance--it is the beginning of life not wholly individualistic. It is in the s.e.xual pa.s.sions we must seek the origins of all social growth. This is evident. We have seen that s.e.xual union induces durable a.s.sociation between the female and the male for the object of rearing the young. Here already we find that truth, which it is the chief purpose of this book to make plain, that the individual exists for the race. This is the new and practical morality of the biological view, which regards the individual as primarily the host and servant of the seed of life. And this is really of the greatest benefit to the individual. From this service to the future arises the family and the home. The familial instinct, more or less developed, may be traced far back in the scale of life; and as it gains in strength it extends from the family into a wider social love, which in some species results in the forming of societies grouped together for mutual protection and co-operation in communal activities. A rough outline of society is thus found established already in the animal kingdom.
Just as there were many different forms of s.e.xual a.s.sociations among our animal ancestors, so we may observe the two chief forms of human societies, the matriarchate and the patriarchate--or the maternal and paternal family. It is the former that is the most frequent. This is what we should expect. The female, the mother, as the natural centre of the family, the male, her servant, in the procreative act; but apart from this, we find him most frequently following personal interests; the female"s love for the young is stronger and more developed than his. I lay stress upon this fact, for it shows how strongly planted in woman is the maternal instinct. I doubt if any woman can ever find true expression for her nature apart from motherhood. It is in these past histories of life"s development that we may find the key for its purpose and meaning to us.
There is another point of special importance to us in estimating the true place of woman in society. This early position of the female proves conclusively (as we shall see more clearly later when we come to study the primitive human family) the importance of the mother and her children as the founders of society. Woman, by reason of her more intimate connection with the children and the home, became the centre of the social group, while the males, less bound by domestic ties, were able to wander, but came back to the home, driven by their s.e.xual needs to return to the female. But without giving more time here to this question, to which I shall return later, there is a further consideration, arising from our study of the family habits among the birds and mammals, that now must claim our attention. Certain examples I have come across, in particular among birds, have forced into my mind doubt of a widely-accepted belief. I put forward my opinion with great diffidence; it is so easy to interpret facts by the bias of one"s own wishes. I know that the cases I have found and studied are probably few in comparison with those I have missed; but to me they seem of such importance, by the light they throw on the whole question of the position of the s.e.xes, that it seems necessary to bring them forward.