FORMAL FIGHTING 185 



on the nest, or elsewhere, with its young, producing 

 a sort of hysteria or convulsion ; others I believe to 

 be due to what instinct, generally, is often supposed 

 to be, namely, to the lapse of intelligence. I believe 

 that if a certain action or set of actions is very fre- 

 quently repeated, it comes to be performed unintelli- 

 gently ; nay, more, that there is an imperious necessity 

 of performing it, independently of any good which 

 it may do. It is watching birds fighting which has 

 led me to this conclusion. Far from doing the best 

 thing under the circumstances, they often appear to 

 me to do things which lead to no particular result, 

 neglecting, through them, very salient opportunities. 

 A striking instance of this, though not quite of the 

 kind that I mean, is offered by the stock-dove, for 

 when these birds fight, they constantly interrupt the 

 flow of the combat, by bowing in the most absurd 

 way, not to one another, but generally, so to speak, 

 for no object or purpose whatever, apparently, but 

 only because they must do so. The fact is, the bow 

 has become a formula of courtship, and as courting 

 and fighting are intimately connected, the one sug- 

 gests the other in the mind of the bird, who bows, 

 all at once, under a misconception, and as not being 

 able to help it. But though there is no utility here, 

 it may be said that there is a real purpose, though a 

 mistaken one, so that the bird is not acting auto- 

 matically. It is in the actual movements of the 

 fight itself — in the cut and thrust, so to speak — 

 that I have been struck by the automatic character 

 impressed upon some of them. This was especially 

 the case with a pair of snipes that I watched fighting, 

 by the little streamlet here, one morning, perhaps 



