CHAPTER III 



BIRDS 



Sexual selection. Choice of females. Rejection of the hypothesis. 

 Advance of the male's senses. Selection of the strongest suitor. 

 Explanation of coyness and the animal coquette. Female 

 selection inadmissible. The love -dance. Selection of the 

 apparent strongest. Colours as means of distinguishing species. 

 Use of sounds. Pairing - calls. Origin and forms of song. 

 Instrumental music of the birds. Migration. Speed of flight. Do 

 birds tire ? The adaptations of the bird-body. Height of the 

 migration - flight. Origin of birds of passage. Their strength, 

 their power of presentiment. Routes of migrating birds. Their 

 memory and sense of direction. Travelling in flocks. 



The poets have often introduced the song of the 

 bird — as Shelley did — amongst their throbbing lines 

 over the destiny of men. It is natural that the poets 

 should love the birds. From the bird the art that man 

 must slowly learn seems to pour out in rich, inex- 

 haustible flood. The woods and the meadows are 

 enlivened by the songs of the birds. Where would 

 the magic of spring be if there were no singers to 

 proclaim its glory to us ? 



We often read in books of travel in distant lands 

 that all the splendour of the tropics only awakes a 

 longing for our own forests because there is no sweet 

 song in the glittering birds that complete the fair 



picture of Nature. Even in Japan, where noble forests 



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