COURTSHIP 269 
stirs her organic being, sets her all aglow, and breaks down the 
barriers of her coyness. And this he does because he is the 
centre of a conscious situation which has acquired, through 
her experience of his presence, a meaning and an interest that 
are at last irresistibly attractive. It is a choice from impulse, 
not the result of deliberation; but it is a choice which is 
determined by the emotional meaning of the conscious situation. 
And it is the reiterated revival of the associated emotional 
elements which generates an impulse sufficiently strong to 
overcome her instinctive coyness and reluctance. 
And this coyness is the natural correlative of the ardour 
of the male, an ardour increased by his courtship antics. If 
the female yielded readily and at once, the behaviour of 
courtship would never have been evolved. Superabundant 
vigour in the male is, no doubt, a favourable condition of 
courtship, as it is of play ; but neither is it a sine qua non, nor 
in any case does it, or can it, afford any guidance of behaviour 
into just those specific channels in which we find it setting 
during the breeding season. If sexual selection be not a vera 
causa of the specific direction, we have at present no other 
hypothesis which in any degree fits the facts. And to the 
criticism of those who, like Mr. W. H. Hudson, urge that 
dance and song, and aérial evolutions in birds, are seen at 
times when the immediate business of courtship forms no part 
of the situation, Professor Groos’s theory of play affords a 
sufficient answer. If courtship, whose biological end is of 
such supreme importance, forms a central feature in the serious 
business of animal life; and if play is the preparation and 
practice for behaviour of biological importance ; we should 
expect to find manifestations (with an emotional difference, 
and no doubt many differences in detail) of all those actions, 
the due performance of which, in the supreme hour of court- 
ship, will alone enable the adequately prepared and well- 
practised male to overcome the reluctance of the female, and 
beget offspring to transmit his instinctive and emotional 
tendencies, 
