512 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



presses a beautifully formed arrow of lime at its neighbour — the 

 spiculum amoris or Cupid's dart. Luminescent signals pass from the 

 female glow-worm, sitting in the grass, to attract the even more 

 luminous male who dances in the air, and the lady gatliers a levee. 

 The male death-watch knocks his head against the wainscot; what 

 is taken by the superstitious as a presage of death being his knock- 

 ing at the door of his desired mate. The grasshoppers trill merrily, 

 the cicadas "sing" to the breaking-point to their voiceless wives 

 (dull of hearing though they be), the crickets chirp, and there are 

 other forms of instrumental music drawn into the service of Love. 

 The male spider often tights with his rivals, lustily and skilfully, 

 but not to much hurting; he dances round the capriciously tempered 

 female, showing otf his good points of colour and agility; he some- 

 times courts from a safe distance by vibratuig a silken thread that 

 leads to the spinster's web. 



There is a moral to this brief survey, for is it not one of the 

 encouraging facts of Organic Evolution that fair flowers arise from 

 earthy roots, more useful than beautiful? In the lower levels of 

 animal life there is no wooing at all; imperceptibly there is an 

 evolution of sensory appeals, and the lusty may become the fond; 

 gradually there appear indubitable expressions of emotion and 

 hints of psychical as well as physical tendernesses; the leaves of 

 fondness become the flower of love, whence, may be, the fruits of 

 the spirit. In any case, as Socrates said in speaking of the "religious 

 and human love" of the halcyon, "there is comfort in this, both 

 for men and women, in their relations with each other". 



Courtship of the Albatross. — In Mr. Beebe's Arciurus 

 Adventure (Putnam's, 1926) a graphic account is given of the court- 

 ship of the albatross. One walked up to another, who rose and faced 

 him. They stood with their breasts about a foot apart. He suddenly 

 shot his head and neck straight up, the bill skyward, and uttered a 

 deep, grunting moan. She followed suit and then, alternately, each 

 bird bowed deeply and quickly three times. "Without an instant's 

 delay they next crossed bills and, with quick vibratory movements 

 of the head, they ft-nced — there is absolutely no other word for it — 

 with closed mandibles." Without warning, the male suddenly stopped 

 and again shot his head high up into the air. W'hereupon she 

 instantly turned her head and neck far sideways, close to the left 

 wing imd side. Then another double bow and a second bout; then 

 a rest for a few minutes, followed by more fencing, the male with 

 widely open mandibles. It is an astonishing ritual, but entirely in 

 keeping with what we are beginning to know in regard to many 

 birds. Mr. Beebe is not the first to describe it; but he does it well, 

 and he got a complete series of motion pictures of the fencing. He 

 bowed to one of the solemn birds, and got it to return his salutation 

 twice. The ceremonies may be rejx'ated even when the birds are 



