1 84 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



displaying, anticking, nest-building, enticing one from 

 their young, fighting, &c. &c. — all those activities, 

 in fact, which are displayed most strongly during 

 the breeding season. I do not at all agree with a 

 certain reviewer of mine, that the scientific value of 

 such observations has been discounted by Darwin — 

 as if any man, however great, could tear all the 

 heart out of nature ! On the contrary, I believe 

 that the more we pry the more will truth appear, 

 and I look upon mere general references, such as 

 one finds in the ordinary natural history books, 

 as mere play-work and most sorry reading for an 

 intellectual man. What is the use of knowing that 

 some bird or other goes through " very extraordinary 

 antics in the season of love " ? This is not nearly 

 enough. One requires to know what, exactly, these 

 antics are, the exact movements of which they con- 

 sist — the minutest details, in fact, gathered from a 

 number of observations. When one knows this one 

 may be able to speculate a little, and what interest 

 is there, either in natural history or anything else, 

 if one cannot do that ? Mere facts are for children 

 only. As they begin to point towards conclusions 

 they become food for men. 



In the study of bird-life nothing perhaps is more 

 interesting than the antics of one sort or another 

 which we see performed by different species, and the 

 nature and origin of which it is often difficult to 

 understand. As has been seen, I account for some 

 of these through natural selection acting upon 

 violent nervous movements, the result either of 

 sexual or some other kind of emotion — as, for 

 instance, sudden fright when the bird is disturbed 



