PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



tween the male's social character and his amorous char- 

 acter. Ferocious animals show themselves at the moment 

 of love-making much more placid than gentle or even 

 timid animals. The scary rabbit is an impetuous, tyran- 

 nous and jealous lover. If the female does not accede to 

 his first desire, he rages. She is, moreover, very lascivious 

 and gestation in no way interrupts her amours. The 

 hare, who does not pass for audacious, is an ardent and 

 heady lover; he fights furiously with his peers for the 

 possession of a female. They are animals very well 

 equipped for love, the penis greatly developed, clitoris 

 almost as large. The males make real voyages, run for 

 entire nights in search of the doe-hare who is sedentary: 

 like the doe-rabbit, she never refuses, even when preg- 

 nant. 



Martins, polecats, sables, rats fight violently during 

 the rutting season. Rats accompany their fights with 

 sharp cries. Stags and wildboars, and a great number 

 of other species fight to the death for the possession of 

 females; a practice not unknown to humanity. Even 

 heavy tortoises feel exasperation from love; the defeated 

 male is tilted onto his back. 



Finer, destined perhaps for a superior and charming 

 civilization, the birds like combat; sometimes the duel 

 is serious, as in gallinaceae, cock-fights, often it is a cour- 

 tesy, a mimicry. The female of the rock-cock of Brazil 

 is tawny and without beauty, the male is yellow-orange, 

 with crest bordered in deep red, the long wing feathers 

 and tail feathers are red-brown. One sees the females 

 ranged in a circle as a crowd about jugglers, the males 

 are strutting, cutting capers, moving their colour-shot 



