COURTSHIP 187 



many features and phases, which comprise simple dis- 

 covery of the female and presentation of himself by the 

 courting male ; attempts to secure the female's attention, 

 and to fascinate and more or less hypnotize her, by display 

 of brilliant colours or unusual and astonishing poses or 

 movements (such as dancing) on the part of the male; 

 efforts of the male to attach the female to himself, and 

 deadly, often fatal, combats with other males, in order to 

 drive them off and secure a recognized and respected soli- 

 tude for himself and his mate. The courtship of many 

 insects, crustaceans, molluscs, fishes, reptiles, birds, and 

 mammals has been watched and recorded in regard to these 

 details. Naturally enough, it is in the higher forms, the 

 birds and the mammals, that there are the most elaborate 

 and intelligible proceedings in regard to the attraction of 

 the female. But when we compare what birds or, in fact, 

 any animal, does with what man does, we must remember 

 that man has, as compared with them, an immense 

 memory, and has also consciousness. All other animals 

 are to a very large extent mere automata, pleasurably 

 conscious, perhaps (in the higher forms), of the passing 

 moment and of the actions which they are instinctively 

 performing, but without any understanding or thought 

 on the subject. They cannot think because, though 

 some of them are endowed to a limited extent with 

 memory, they have not arrived at the human stage of 

 mental development when consciousness takes account 

 of memory, a memory of enormously increased variety 

 and duration: 



Man has more and more, as he has advanced in 

 mental growth, rejected the unreasoning instinctive 

 classes of action, and substituted for them action based 

 on his own experience and conscious memory, action 

 which is the result of education not the education of 



