12 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



miracle of miracles is the essence of a man distilled ? His 

 body arises from the union or commingling of two particles 

 of living matter so minute as to be invisible to the naked 

 eye. One of these particles is the " sperm "-cell furnished 

 by the male parent ; the other, the " ovum," furnished by 

 the mother. True the ovum may measure as much as 

 the one-hundred and fiftieth part of an inch, but the 

 bulk of this is yolk — food necessary to furnish the tender 

 germ with life and energy till it shall have attached itself 

 to the walls of the womb, whence all its future nourishment 

 is derived. 



By no process of analysis known to us could the germ- 

 plasm of man be distinguished from that of, say, a jelly- 

 fish ; and in the matter of quantity there is no more 

 difference. Yet, identical to our senses, in potentiality 

 how amazingly different are these two particles of jelly ! 

 In the lowliest animals, such as jelly-fish, one cannot 

 distinguish male and female at sight. The appearance 

 of separate male and female individuals begins somewhat 

 high in the scale marking an epoch in the history of 

 animal life. For the birth of sex inaugurated not merely 

 individuals producing distinctive " male " and " female " 

 germs, but individuals which, by virtue of their sex, 

 developed differences of behaviour and mentality which 

 were to be followed by tremendous consequences. Certain 

 aspects of this behaviour are to furnish the theme of 

 these pages ; others, and no less important, those who 

 will may discover in Professor Arthur Thomson's 

 " Evolution of Sex." 



We are far, indeed, from being able to explain the 

 attributes of sex. At most, we can but endeavour to 

 interpret the behaviour associated therewith. This was 

 the task which Darwin set himself to achieve in his theory 



