380 The Descent of Man. Part II 



the sounds thus produced. It is a curious fact that in the same 

 class of animals, sounds so different as the drumming of the 

 snipe's tail, the tapping of the woodpecker's beak, the harsh 

 trumpet-like cry of certain water-fowl, the cooing of the turtle- 

 dove, and the song of the nightingale, should all be pleasing to 

 the females of the several species. But we must not judge of the 

 tastes of distinct species by a uniform standard ; nor must we 

 judge by the standard of man's taste. Even with man, wo 

 should remember what discordant noises, the beating of tom- 

 toms and the shrill notes of reeds, please the ears of savages. 

 Sir S. Baker remarks, 58 that " as the stomach of the Arab prefers 

 " the raw meat and reeking liver taken hot from the animal, so 

 " does his ear prefer his equally coarse and discordant music to 

 " all other." 



Love-Antics and Dances. — The curious love gestures of somo 

 birds have already been incidentally noticed ; so that little need 

 here be added. In Northern America, large numbers of a grouse, 

 the Tetrao pliasianellus, meet every morning during the breeding- 

 season on a selected level spot, and here they run round and 

 round in a circle of about fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, sc 

 that the ground is worn quite bare, like a fairy-ring. In these 

 Partridge-dances, as they are called by the hunters, the birds 

 assume the strangest attitudes, and run round, some to the left 

 and some to the right. Audubon describes the males of a heron 

 (Ardei herodias) as walking about on their long legs with great 

 dignity before the females, bidding defiance to their rivals. "With 

 one of the disgusting carrion-vultures (Cathartes jota) the same 

 naturalist states that "the gesticulations and parade of the 

 " males at the beginning of the love-season are extremely 

 " ludicrous." Certain birds perform their love antics on the wing, 

 as we have seen with the black African weaver, instead of on the 

 ground. During the spring our little white-throat {Sylvia 

 cinerea) often rises a few feet or yards in the air above some 

 bush, and " flatters with a fitful and fantastic motion, singing all 

 " the while, and then drops to its perch." The great English 

 bustard throws himself into indescribably odd attitudes whilst 

 courting the female, as has been figured by Wolf. An allied 

 Indian bustard (Otis bengalensis) at such times "rises perpen- 

 " dicularly into the air with a hurried flapping of his wings, 

 " raising his crest and puffing out the feathers of his neck and 

 " breast, and then drops to the ground ;" he repeats this 

 manoeuvre several times, at the same time humming in a 

 peculiar tone. Such females as happen to be near " obey this 



68 The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,' 1867, p. 203. 



