Music and Dancing in Nature. 285 
most perfect melody. Even in a single branch of 
the true vocalists we may see it—from the chirping 
bunting, and noisy but tuneless sparrow, to linnet 
and goldfinch and canary. Not only do a large 
majority of species show the singing instinct, or 
form of display, in a primitive, undeveloped state, 
but m that state it continues to show itself in the 
young of many birds in which melody is most highly 
developed in the adult. And where the develop- 
ment has been solely in the male the female never 
rises above that early stage; in her lively chirpings 
and little mock fights and chases, and other simple 
forms which gladness takes in birds, as well as in 
her plainer plumage, and absence of ornament, she 
represents the species at some remote period. And 
as with song so with antics and all set performances 
aerial or terrestrial, from those of the whale and 
the elephant to those of the smallest insect. 
Another point remains to be noticed, and that is 
the greater frequency and fulness in displays of all 
kinds, including song, during the love season. And 
here Dr. Wallace’s colour and ornament theory 
helps us to an explanation. At the season of court- 
ship, when the conditions of life are most favourable, 
vitality is at its maximum, and naturally it is then 
that the proficiency in all kinds of dancing-antics, 
aérial and terrestrial, appears greatest, and that 
melody attains its highest perfection. This applies 
chiefly to birds, but even among birds there are 
exceptions, as we have seen in the case of the field- 
finch, Sycalis luteola. The love-excitement is 
doubtless pleasurable to them, and it takes the 
form in which keenly pleasurable emotions are 
