LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 259 



victim, and to travel with the stream. Unceasingly those behind 

 press forward, and those in front yield slowly to the pressure; those 

 cooped up in the middle strive continually to reach the wings, and 

 their efforts are strenuously resisted. Above the clouds of dust 

 raised by the rushing army the vultures circle; flanks and rear are 

 attended by a funeral procession of various beasts of prey; in the 

 passes lurk sportsmen, who send shot after shot into the throng. 

 So the tortured animals travel for many miles, till at length spring 

 sets in and their armies are broken up. 



Shall I go on to consider other compulsory migrations, such as 

 those of the arctic foxes and polar bears when an ice-floe on which 

 they were hunting is loosened and floated off by the waves till, under 

 favourable circumstances, it touches some island ? I think not, for 

 journeys such as these are not migrations, they are simply passive 

 driftings. 



LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 



An irresistible instinct, an all-compelling law of nature, moves 

 every living creature to seek a mate of its own species but of oppo- 

 site sex, to unite a second existence with its own, to awaken respon- 

 sive emotions through complete self -surrender, and thus to form the 

 closest bond which links being to being, life to life. No power is 

 strong enough to set aside this law, no command authoritative 

 enough to influence it. Yielding to no hindrance this instinct over- 

 comes every obstacle, and presses victorious to its goal. 



The almighty power through which this law works we call Love, 

 when we speak of its influence on man; we describe it as Instinct 

 when we discuss its operation on the lower animals. But this is a 

 mere play upon words, nothing more ; unless by the former word 

 we intend to imply that every natural instinct in man should by 

 man himself be ennobled and moralized. If it be not so, it will be 

 difficult to distinguish between the two. Man and beast are subject 

 to the same law, but the beast yields it a more absolute obedience. 

 The animal does not weigh or reflect, but gives itself up without 



