266 THE BIRD WATCHER 
in whom, however, tigre can be no idea of modesty. 
They are supposed to be wooed, and not to woo ; but 
they both can, and, to a considerable extent, do exer- 
cise the latter power. If they cannot ask, they can 
demand to be asked ; and to think that the latter is a 
less powerful agency than the former is to think very 
naively. If women were not often, in reality, very 
active wooers, such common expressions as “ setting 
her cap at him,” “ drawing him on,” “ throwing her- 
self at his head,” etc., etc., could hardly have arisen, 
and it must not be forgotten that the same thing can 
be done both coarsely and refinedly, visibly and so as 
to be hardly perceptible. No doubt there is some- 
thing called modesty amongst civilised women, but 
there are also jealousy and prudential considerations— 
very powerful solvents of anything of the sort. Yet 
with all this we have the prevailing idea that (even in 
a civilised state of things) it is man who woos and 
woman who is won; man who advances and woman 
who retires ; man who seeks and woman who shuns, 
The reason probably is that the actions of man are 
of a more downright nature, and easier to observe and 
follow, than those of woman—who, as a clever writer 
has remarked, approaches her object obliquely—and, 
secondly, that it is man mostly, and not woman, who 
has given his opinion on this and other matters through 
the most authoritative channels—for it is man who, 
by virtue of his intellect and his selfishness, holds the 
chief places of authority. 
May not these factors have affected in some degree, 
