ANTICS AND ECSTASIES 173 



individual memory, intelligent and purposive ? since, 

 by becoming so, their ability might be largely in- 

 creased, and their improvement proceed at a quicker 

 rate. I believe that in these actions of the peewit, 

 which sometimes appear to me to stand in the place 

 of copulation, and at other times commence imme- 

 diately after it, with a peculiar run, and then go on, 

 without pause or break, to other motions, all of which 

 even the curious pecking which I have noticed 

 have, more or less, the stamp of sexual excitement 

 upon them, though some may, in their effects, be ser- 

 viceable I believe, I say, that in all these actions we 

 see this process actually at work ; and I believe, also, 

 that in the nest-building of species comparatively 

 advanced in the art, we may still see traces of its 

 early sexual origin. I have been, for instance, 

 extremely struck with the movements of a hen 

 blackbird upon the nest that she was in course 

 of constructing. These appeared to me to partake 

 largely of an ecstatic one might almost say a 

 beatific nature, so that there was a large margin 

 of energy, over and above the actual business of 

 building at least it struck me so to be accounted 

 for. I was not in the least expecting to see this, and 

 I well remember how it surprised and struck me. 

 The wings of this blackbird were half spread out, 

 and would, I think, have drooped an action most 

 characteristic of sexual excitement in birds had 

 not the edge of the nest supported them, and I 

 particularly noted the spasmodic manner in which 

 the tail was, from time to time, suddenly bent down. 

 It is true that it then tightly clasped as one may 

 almost call it the rim of the nest, pressing hard 



