BIBD-ALTRUISM 81 



tions or a fresh lustre and brilliance to its normal plumage, 

 etc. The love of mates then broadens and develops into 

 the no less intense love of parents. As J. G. Wood, in 

 his account of the humming bird, expresses it : 



" The female needs no song nor glittering plumage for 

 the expression of her love, for she performs in loving acts 

 the sympathies which her mate expresses in colour, form, 

 or sound, and while imparting the divine element of love to 

 her callow young, she utters and incarnates her song of 

 praise through the coming generation. She freely gives her 

 whole being for the welfare of her young and finds the most 

 exquisite delight in utter abnegation of self. Her mate 

 sings the song, but she performs it, and manifests her love 

 in a melody more fruitful than that of her mate, because so 

 many beings are evolved from it, and her fear being con- 

 quered by her love, boldly attacks with dauntless heart the 

 would-be destroyer of her domestic peace." 



The thing to note, then, is that the love of birds for 

 their mates and young is a concentrated drama of the 

 whole spring resurrection. It is a seasonal thing and 

 quivers in a wonderful responsiveness to the total awaken- 

 ing of nature. Birds undergo a kind of metamorphosis ; 

 their whole being is transfigured and they pass into an 

 intoxication which is as wine to water compared with 

 normal existence. And this emotional condition cor- 

 responds with a profound constitutional change, a change 

 in the metabolism of the body, which affects the physical 

 appearance of the male birds and the energies of both 

 sexes. It is not extravagant to say that the birds are 

 new beings, psychical and physical beings both. It is 

 not surprising, then, that this sublimated impulse should 

 express itself not only in varying but in contrary forms 

 in blind aberrations as in the swan fighting for the 

 cygnets and the duck brooding the cricket ball, and in an 

 absorbed sacrifice and selfless devotion as in the black- 

 birds attacking the cats. The accounts of birds nesting 

 in close proximity to man are a kind of blend of the two. 

 Wary and very intelligent birds like carrion crows and 



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