THE CYCLE OF SEX 129 



express their emotions in the presence or 

 proximity of their desired mates. Many 

 male spiders have a characteristic love dance, 

 in which they circle round and round the 

 short-sighted females, as if they were showing 

 off their agility and beauty. Many birds, 

 such as the Argus pheasant and the peacock, 

 make elaborate displays, bending and bowing, 

 strutting and saluting, in a manner that 

 beggars description. Finest and most familiar 

 is the musical appeal of many birds. We 



FIG. 19. Two male spiders. A, Astia vittata posing befor 

 the female. B, Icius mitratus dancing before the female. 

 (After the Peckhams.) 



must not read too much into them, for the 

 suitors are as it were sex-intoxicated, express- 

 ing their ardour instinctively and with aban- 

 don, rather than with deliberation or strategy. 

 But we must not think of them too cheaply, 

 or surrender them too readily to the physio- 

 logist to whom love is a mere label for the 

 alterations of metabolism that follow from 

 the brain being eroticised by hormones. 

 FALLING IN LOVE. Coming now to human 



