6 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



instinct becomes weak, or defective, extinction speedily 

 and inevitably follows. This " Amorousness " is the 

 motive power of " Courtship " wherever it is met with ; 

 manifesting itself in the eccentric, and often grotesque 

 posturings, or in the loud and often musical cries which 

 constitute the study of courtship. Intensity of desire is 

 indispensable to survival. 



Only the lowly and sedentary types, of which the 

 Oyster may be taken as an example, lack this fire ; and 

 here because it is unnecessary. For the reproductive 

 germs of this animal are discharged into the water, to 

 take their chance of attaining their object. They are 

 liberated unconsciously, discharged like the undigested 

 residue of the food, without effort, and without cognizance 

 of the act. This must be so, for the Oyster merely lives 

 — vegetates. Sightless, and without power of movement, 

 after its larval wanderings are over, it lives merely to eat. 

 And even in this, choice is denied it. The currents of 

 water mechanically brought to afford the necessary 

 oxygen for the maintenance of life, bring with them the 

 food which is to restore the slowly wasting tissues. To 

 such a creature there can be no " outer-world," no con- 

 sciousness of the existence of individuality other than 

 its own. 



The desire for sexual intercourse is met with only where 

 the co-operation of two individuals is necessary to ensure 

 the production of offspring. Such individuals being free 

 to roam, must have some incentive to seek one another 

 at the time when their germ-cells have attained 'maturity. 

 And this incentive is furnished by the glands in which 

 these elements are produced : supplemented by the secre- 

 tions of certain ancillary glands. These stimulating juices^ 

 known as the " Hormones," will be presently described. 



