CHAPTER VI

THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF ANIMALS

1. The love of mates-2. Love and care for offspring.

WINTER in our northern climate sets a spell upon life. The migrant birds escape from it, but most living things have to remain spell-bound, some hiding with the supreme patience of animals, others slumbering peacefully, others in a state of "latent life" stranger than death. But within the hard rind of the trees, or lapped round by bud scales, or imprisoned within the husks of buried seeds, the life of plants is ready to spring forth when the south wind blows; beneath the snow lie the caterpillars of summer butterflies, the frogs are waiting in the mud of the pond, the hedgehog curled up sleeps soundly, and everywhere, under the seeming death, life rests until the spring. "For the coming of Ormuzd, the Light and Life Bringer, the leaf slept folded, the butterfly was hidden, the germ concealed, while the sun swept upwards towards Aries."

But when spring does come, heralded by returning migrants-swallows and cuckoos among the rest-how marvellous is the reawakening! The buds swell and burst, the corn sends up its light green shoots, the primrose and celandine are in blossom, the mother humblebee comes out from her hiding-place and booms towards the willow catkins, the frogs croak and pair, none the worse of their fast, the rooks caw noisily, and the cooing of the dove is heard from the wood. Then, as the pale flowers are succeeded by those of brighter tints, as the snowy hawthorn gives place to the laburnum's "dropping wells of fire" and the bloom of the lilac, the butterflies

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flit in the sunshine, the chorus of birds grows stronger, and the lambs bleat in the valley. Temperature rises, colours brighten, life becomes strong and lusty, and the earth is filled with love.

1. The Love of Mates. In human life one of the most complex musical chords is the love of mates, in the higher forms of which we distinguish three notes-physical, emotional, and intellectual attraction. The love of animals, however, we can only roughly gauge by analogy; our knowledge is not sure enough to appreciate it justly, though we know beyond any doubt that in many the physical fondness of one sex for another is sublimed by the addition of subtler emotional sympathies. Among mammals, which frequently pair in spring, the males are often transformed by passion, the "timid " hare becomes an excited combatant with his rivals, while in the beasts of prey love often proves itself stronger than hunger. There is much ferocity in mammalian courtship savage jealousy of rivals, mortal struggles between them, and success in wooing to the strongest. In many cases the love-making is like a storm-violent but passing. The animals pair and separate-the females to motherhood, the males to their ordinary life. A few, like some small antelopes, seem to remain as mates from year to year; many monkeys are said to be monogamous; but this is not the way of the majority.

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Birds are more emotional than mammals, and their love-making is more refined. The males are almost always more decorative than their mates, and excel in the power of song. They may sing, it is true, from sheer gladness of heart, from a genuine joy of life, and their lay rises like the sap in the bough"; but the main motive of their music is certainly love. It may not always be music to us, but it is sweet to the ears for which it is meant to which in many tones the song says ever Hither, my love! Here I am! Here!" Nor do the male birds woo by singing alone, but by love dances and by fluttering displays of their bright plumage ; with flowers, bright pods, and shining shells, the bowerbirds decorate tents of love for their honeymoon. The

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mammals woo chiefly by force; the birds are often moved to love by beauty, and mates often live in prolonged partnership with mutual delight and helpfulness. Sixty years before Darwin elaborated his theory of sexual selection, according to which males have grown more attractive because the most captivating suitors were most successful in love, the ornithologist. Bechstein noted how the female canary or finch would choose the best singer among a crowd of suitors; and it is still a tenable theory that the female's choice of the most musical or the most handsome or the most exciting has been a factor in progress. Wallace, on the contrary, maintained that the females are plainly dressed because of the elimination of the conspicuous during incubation, and denied that there is effective selection in courtship. It may be that masculine characteristics, arising to begin with as germinal variations in males, are congruent with maleness, and do not emerge in individual development except in what one may call a male soil. And similarly for feminine peculiarities, which are usually more negative.

Compared with the lion's thunder, the elephant's trumpeting, or the stag's resonant bass, and the might which lies behind these, or with the warble of the nightingale, the carol of the thrush, the lark's blithe lay, or the mocking-bird's nocturne, and the emotional wealth which these express, the challenges and calls of love among other classes of animals are apt to seem lacking in force or beauty. But our human judgment affords no sure criterion. The frogs and toads, which lead on an average a somewhat sluggish life, wake up at pairing time, and croak according to their strength. Vocal powers are sometimes confined to the males, which may be furnished with two resonating sacs at the back of the mouth. It is a very interesting fact that the voices of the different species of frogs and toads are quite characteristic.

Of the mating of fishes we know little, but there are some well-known cases alike of display and of tournament. The stickleback fights with his rivals, leads his

mate to the nest by captivating wiles, dances round her in a frenzy, and afterwards guards the eggs with jealous.

FIG. 27.-MALE AND FEMALE BIRD OF PARADISE (Paradisea minor). The male has highly decorative, brilliantly coloured plumage. That of the female is simple and relatively plain.

(From Evolution of Sex; after Catalogue of Dresden Museum.)