262 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



these may have been; for the wooer who seems to her most worthy 

 she breaks even her conjugal bonds. 



Every female bird attains to the possession of a husband, but 

 not every male readily succeeds in gaining a wife. Even among 

 birds so great a good must be sought after and striven for. On an 

 average, there are more males than females, and many males are 

 obliged to suffer the severest misfortune which can befall them, and to 

 live, at least temporarily, unmated. For the great majority of birds, 

 celibacy is a state of torment from which they strive with all their 

 strength to escape. So they traverse wide tracts in search of a mate, 

 seeking diligently, and when they imagine they have found one, 

 wooing with equal ardour, whether she be maid, wife, or widow. 

 If these wanderings were usually fruitless, they would not take 

 place so regularly as they do. 



In wooing their mates, the males exhaust all the charms with 

 which nature has endowed them. According to his species and 

 capacity each brings his best gifts into play, each seeks to show his 

 best side, to reveal all his amiability, to surpass in brilliance others 

 of his kind. This desire increases with the hope of fulfilment; his 

 love intoxicates him, throws him into ecstasies. The older he is 

 the more remarkably does he conduct himself, the more self-confi- 

 dent does he appear, the more impetuously does he strive for the 

 reward of love. The proverb, " There are no fools like old fools ", 

 does not apply in his case, for it is but rarely that age condemns 

 him to weakness and incapacity; on the contrary, it strengthens 

 all his capabilities and increases his energy by mature experience. 

 Little wonder then than at least the younger females prefer the 

 older males, and that these woo, if not more ardently, at least more 

 confidently than their younger rivals. 



The means by which a male bird declares his love and con- 

 ducts his courtship are very various, but, naturally, they always 

 accord with his most prominent gifts. One woos with his song, 

 another with his wings, this one with his bill, and that with his 

 foot; one displays all the magnificence of his plumage, another some 

 special decoration, and a third some otherwise unused accomplish- 

 ment. Serious birds indulge in play and joke and dignified pranks; 



