480 COUKTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



The duration of courtship in birds is liable to the same 

 variations as in man. It may be short or prolonged, rapid 

 or dilatory ; there may be ' love at first sight,' leading to or 

 ripening speedily into matrimony ; or the female may be ' ill 

 to please and hesitant in making up her mind ' more pro- 

 bably as to the merits of rival candidates for the favours of 

 love than as to marriage itself. The rapidity of the process 

 of wooing is most marked in the re-marriage of widows ; 

 perhaps, also, of widowers, though in their case the pheno- 

 menon certainly has not been so frequently noticed. The 

 widow, however, manages, in a marvellously short space of 

 time, to make known ' to all whom it may concern/ or per- 

 haps to some favoured male, the fact that she is once more 

 in the matrimonial market, again ready to become the prize 

 of gallantry, valour, symmetry or song, as the case may be. 

 There is sometimes the same unbecoming unceremoniousness, 

 the same * hot haste ' after a bereavement, that attends occa- 

 sionally, or leads to, the second nuptials of those who ought 

 to be, according to etiquette, * inconsolable ' or { disconsolate ' 

 young widows among mankind. 



Under whatever circumstances the marriage tie is con- 

 tracted, its obligations are not always held sacred, any more 

 than in man. Among birds especially there are ' gay ' males 

 or females that boast of their success in gallantry or solicita- 

 tion. There are profligates and prostitutes ; illicit as well as 

 legitimate amours ; conjugal infidelity and desertion ; seduc- 

 tions and elopements ; marital quarrels of all kinds ; and not 

 unfrequently the summary punishment of marital offences. 

 But, on the other hand, the affection of the lover or the mate 

 is frequently marked by the utmost delicacy, sincerity and 

 constancy for instance, in the warbler and dove. 



As in man, it is usually the male who courts and the 

 female who is courted. She is passive, except in the import- 

 ant matter of choosing or accepting a mate ; while he has all 

 the fatigue, anxiety, and danger of the love antics or dances, 

 and of the fights, which so frequently characterise animal 

 courtship. There are exceptional cases, however, in which, 

 just again as in mankind, the female not only takes the 

 initiative, but plays the whole game. For instance, court- 



