PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



to the pressing of two sapphists clasped vulva to vulva. 

 Far from being a regression or a stop, it is perhaps a 

 progress, the male at least gaining in security and vigour, 

 being obliged to very little muscular development. The 

 salacity of certain birds is well known, and one does not 

 see that the absence of an exterior penis diminishes their 

 ardour, or attenuates the pleasure which they find in these 

 succinct contacts. Perhaps the direct genital pleasure is 

 concentrated in a vascular papilla which swells a little 

 at the moment of the approaches; this is very rudimen- 

 tary, often unnoticeable but it seems to be an exciting 

 organ, the producer of pleasure. The male mounts the 

 female, holds her with feet and beak, the two cloaca are 

 superposed, the sperm flows into the oviduct. One sees 

 sparrows repeat the sexual act as often as twenty times, 

 always with the same excitement, the same expression of 

 contentment; the female tires first, and shows her im- 

 patience. Birds' habits are especially interesting in 

 reason of the play with which they surround their love 

 making, their parades, their combats; we will deal with 

 this in later chapters. 



Batrachians live for hardly anything save reproduction. 

 Outside their season of love, they remain stupefied. The 

 rut over-excites them, and these slow, frozen animals 

 then show themselves ardent and implacable. The males 

 fight for the possession of females; having seized a female, 

 nothing will make the male let go. One has seen him 

 stick to his post even after his hind legs were cut off, 

 even after losing half his body. Yet the copulation is 

 mere simulacrum, it takes place by simple contact in the 

 absence of exterior organs, even in salamanders, despite 

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