CHAPTER V

COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

I.--_Among the Birds and Mammals_

Courtship and marriage among birds and mammals--Every form of association similar to human marriage--A high standard of love-morality among birds--Monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry--Cases of absolute profligate promiscuity--Suggestions of all the sexual sins of humanity--The phenomena of courtship--The law of battle--Battles of mammals and male gallinaceæ--The frenzy of love--Where supremacy in love is gained by force the males become stronger and better armed than the females--Importance of this--Gentler ways of wooing--Æsthetic seductions--Courteous duels--The note of joy in love among birds--Affectionate partnerships lasting for life--Frequency of monogamy among birds--Co-operation of both sexes in forming the home and caring for the young--The amatory dances of birds--Significance of dancing--Numerous illustrations--The use of song and decorative plumage--Musical seduction--Æsthetic constructions--The extraordinary power of sex-hunger--General propositions.

II.--_Further Examples of Courtship, Marriage and the Family among Birds_

Darwin's theory of sexual-selection--Objections to this by Wallace and others--An explanation--The true object of courtship--The sexual passion the origin of social growth--A rough outline of society already established in the animal kingdom--The maternal and the paternal family--The former the most frequent--The importance of the female--Difference between the secondary sexual characters of the male and the female--Doubt of the accepted view--Need for a further examination--Cases among birds in which the female equals or even exceeds the male in size and strength--Beauty tests of brilliant plumage--Numerous examples of almost identical likeness between the sexes--This similarity in plumage occurs in some of the most brilliant of our birds--The interesting case of the phalaropes where the rôle of the sexes is reversed--These facts point to an error in the accepted opinion as to the secondary sexual characters--Sexual adornments cannot be regarded as a necessary and exclusive adjunct of the male--Prof. Lester Ward's Gynæocratic theory--Male efflorescence--Among the species in which male differentiation has gone farthest the males are bad fathers--Examples to prove this--The fathers devoid of affection belong to the less intelligent species--The conclusion--An extravagant growth of the secondary sexual characters not favourable to the highest development of the species--The most oppressed females the most faithful wives--The highest development in the beautiful cases in which the sexes are more alike, equal in capacity and co-operate together in the race-work--Individual fancies of females--The case of a female wild duck--Desire for sexual variety--Conjugal fidelity modified by the conditions of life--Civilisation depraves birds--General observations--Love the great creative force.

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