94 BIRD WATCHING 



to have become, or to be in process of becoming, of 

 more importance than the emotion which had given 

 birth to it, the essence seemed merged into the form, 

 the book had become its binding.' I suggest that 

 this may be sometimes actually the case in nature, 

 that a movement, or a note, or series of notes, may 

 become itself so all-absorbing as to demand the whole 

 consciousness of the bird who, in performing it, 

 forgets the why and the wherefore of the perform- 

 ance. Let this process once commence, and certain 

 movements — antics — performed at first with^a definite 

 object, might be gone through at last for themselves 

 alone, the object having become now merely to per- 

 form them. In this case, we should have a pure antic 

 or display, the reason of it being unobvious and its 

 origin a puzzle. Such a principle, if it exists, might, 

 perhaps, be called the " law of the formalisation of 

 actions once purposive " (which sounds learned 

 enough), and perhaps traces of it may be seen 

 amongst ourselves. What, for instance, are our 

 civilised dances except movements which have be- 

 come quite formal and meaningless, but which once, 

 as in the war-dance of the savage, had an intense 

 significance ? The analogy is not quite perfect, unless 

 we could show that actual war, for instance, had some- 

 times passed into a dance. Whether this has ever 

 been the case with man I do not know, but I believe 

 that it may have actually happened with some birds, 

 for which idea I will further on adduce my, perhaps, 

 somewhat slender evidence. But, coming back to 

 the oyster - catchers, I can understand that under 

 such a law as this, the actions of the two male birds 

 in regard to the female might gradually get to be 



