LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 261 



separates them and their lives! how vast the differences between 

 their habits and behaviour! Is there a power which can bridge 

 over this gulf? Are conditions conceivable which can incite them 

 to essentially similar expressions of life? We shall see. 



The birds are more unreservedly dependent on the rotation of 

 the seasons than man is. " They sow not, neither do they reap, nor 

 gather into barns", and they must perforce adapt themselves to the 

 seasons if they are to find sufficient food, if they are to live at all. 

 Therefore they blossom in spring, bring forth their fruits in summer, 

 conceal these and themselves in autumn, and rest in winter like the 

 motherly earth. The chapters of their life-history are closely bound 

 up with the seasonal progress of the year. 



In this respect they are indeed governed by an iron law which, 

 within a certain limit, renders anything like freedom and caprice 

 impossible. But whither should spontaneity tend save to want and 

 misery, to the imperilling of their own lives and those of their 

 young? So they bow submissively to nature's law, and enjoy, in 

 consequence, a freedom which we men might envy them, and should 

 envy them, were we not more capable of withdrawing ourselves 

 from the influence of the seasons than they. But do not we also 

 blossom in spring, and rest in winter ? And must not we, too, bow 

 before iron necessity? 



If the birds are in bondage in certain respects, they preserve 

 their freedom and power of choice in others, and they exercise both 

 more joyously and unrestrainedly than man himself. 



No bird voluntarily renounces the joys of love; very few evade 

 the bonds of marriage; but everyone seeks to attain to and enjoy 

 love as early as possible. Before it has laid aside its youthful dress 

 the young bird has learnt to recognize and respect the distinctions 

 of sex; much earlier than that, the young male fights with his fellows 

 as if in boyish wantonness; as soon as he is full-grown he woos 

 ardently and persistently some female of his own species. No male 

 bird condemns himself to bachelorhood, no female bird hardens her 

 heart against a deserving suitor. For lack of a mate, the male 

 wanders restlessly and aimlessly over land and sea; for a worthy 

 mate the female forgets pain and oppressive grief, however deep 



