'380 The Descent of Man. Part 11 



the sounds thus produced. It is a curious fact that in the samp 

 class of animals, sounds so different as the drumming of the 

 snipe's tail, the tapping of the woodpecker's beak, the harsh 

 trumpet-like cry of certain water-fowl, the cooing of the turtle- 

 dove, and the song of the nightingale, should all be pleasing to 

 the females of the several species. But we must not judge of the 

 tastes of distinct species by a uniform standard ; nor must we 

 judge by the standard of man's taste. Even with man, wo 

 should remember what discordant noises, the beating of tom- 

 toms and the shrill notes of reeds, please the ears of savages. 

 Sir S. Baker remarks,'^* that " as the stomach of the Arab prefers 

 " the raw meat and reeking liver taken hot from the animal, so 

 " does his ear prefer his equally coarse and discordant music to 

 " all other." 



Lovf.-Antics and Dancer. — The curious love gestures of some 

 birds have already been incidentally noticed ; so that little need 

 here be added. In Northern America, large numbers of a grouse, 

 the Tttrno plmsianelliis, meet every morning during the breeding- 

 season on a selected level spot, and here they run round and 

 round in a circle of about fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, so 

 that the ground is worn quite bare, like a fairy-ring. In these 

 Partridge-dances, as they are called by the hunters, the birds 

 assume the strangest attitudes, and run round, some to the left 

 and some to the right. Audubon describes the males of a heron 

 {Ardei herodias) as walking about on their long legs with great 

 dignity before the females, bidding defiance to their rivals. With 

 one of the disgusting carrion- vultures (Cathartes jota) the same 

 naturalist states that "the gesticulations and parade of the 

 " males at the beginning of the love-season are extremely 

 " ludicrous." Certain birds perform their love antics on the wing, 

 as we have seen with the black African weaver, instead of on the 

 ground. During the spring our little white-throat {Sylvia 

 cinerea) often rises a few feet or yards in the air above some 

 bush, and " flatters with a fitful and fantastic motion, singing all 

 " the while, and then drops to its perch." The great Enghsh , 

 bustard throws himself into indescribably odd attitudes whilst 

 courting the female, as has been figured by Wolf. An allied 

 Indian bustard (Oij's fien(/ufensss) at such times "rises perpen- 

 " dicularly into the air with a hurried flapping of his wings, 

 " raising his crest and puflng out the feathers of his neck and 

 " breast, and then drops to the ground ;" he repeats this 

 manoeuvre several times, at the same time humming in a 

 peculiar tone. Such females as happen to be near " obey this 

 " Tl.e Nilp, Tributaries of Abyssiuia,' 1867, p. 203. 



