LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 271 



sounds. Thus all the storks woo by quickly clapping the two halves 

 of the bill together, so producing a clatter which makes up for 

 their lack of voice; thus, too, the woodpeckers hammer so fast on 

 a dry tree-top or branch that the wood flies about in splinters, 

 and a drumming sound is caused which resounds throughout the 

 forest. 



Although it cannot be said that the female coquettishly repels 

 any advances and declarations of love, it is only in cases of necessity 

 that she accepts a suitor without exercising selection. At first 

 she listens to the tenderest love -songs apparently with the greatest 

 indifference, and looks on unconcernedly at all the play of wings, 

 the dances executed in her honour, and all the beauty displayed 

 to do her homage. For the most part she behaves as if all the 

 display of fascinations on the part of the males had no relation 

 to her at all. Leisurely, and seemingly quite uninterested in their 

 doings, she goes about her daily business of seeking food. In many, 

 though by no means in all cases, she is ultimately enticed by the 

 song in her glorification, the dances to her praise, but by no action 

 does she give a sign of complaisant response. Many female birds, 

 especially the hens of all polygamous species, do not even come to 

 the " playing " grounds of the cocks, though they are anything but 

 coy, and often by their inviting cries inflame the strutting cocks to 

 the height of passion. If a male becomes more importunate than is 

 agreeable to the female she takes refuge in flight. In very rare 

 cases this may perhaps be meant in earnest, but it is usually con- 

 tinued with such energy and persistence that it is not always easy 

 to determine whether it takes place without any secondary intention 

 or whether it is merely a pretence. If it aims at nothing, it certainly 

 achieves something: a heightening of the desire, a straining to the 

 utmost of all the powers and resources of the wooing male. More 

 excited than ever, regardless of all considerations, and bent only on 

 attaining his object, he pursues the flying female as if he meant to 

 force her to grant his suit; he sings with more fire, struts, dances, 

 and plays with more agility than ever, and exercises his arts of 

 flight whenever the female stops to rest, and more eagerly than ever 

 he follows her if she takes to fresh flight. 



