LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 263 



silent ones chatter, quiet ones become restless, gentle ones combative, 

 timid ones bold, cautious ones careless : in short, all show themselves 

 in an unwonted light. Their whole nature appears changed, for 

 all their movements are more active, more excited than usual, and 

 their conduct differs from their ordinary behaviour in every respect; 

 they are possessed by an intoxication which increases the elasticity 

 of their nature to such a degree that no flagging is ever perceptible. 

 They deprive themselves of sleep, or reduce it to a minimum with- 

 out weariness, and while awake they exert all their powers to the 

 utmost without fatigue. 



All birds with a voice utter clear, articulate notes in their court- 

 ship, and their song is nothing more than a supplication or exultation 

 of love. Our poet's words: 



" Hushed is the nightingale's lay, 



Which gladdened our hearts in spring; 

 "Tis only in love's heyday 



That we hear its minstrels sing", 



are literally true; for the song of the nightingale, and those of all 

 other birds which delight us with their lays, begin with the first 

 stirrings of love, and come to an end when the intoxication is past, 

 and other emotions and cares have taken its place. Singing, the 

 bird flies forth on his quest for a mate; in song he tells the female 

 of his approach, and invites her to join him; in passionate song he 

 gives expression to his delight when he has found her, and to his 

 desires, and longings, and hopes; through his song he reveals his 

 strength, and exalts his own bliss to the heavens; and through it, 

 too, he challenges all other males of his species who would presume 

 to disturb his happiness. Only so long as he is inspired by the 

 intoxication of love is the bird's song full of fire and strength, and 

 if he sing at other times, his lay is certainly a reminiscence of the 

 great joy which once was his. Whoever maintains, as has really 

 been maintained, that a bird sings without any personal feeling 

 whatever, that it sings at a given time simply because it must, and 

 that at another time it could not if it would, has never understood, 

 or sought to understand, the song of birds, but has simply given 



