The Courtship of AnimalsPycraft, W. P. (William Plane)
Science
The Courtship of Animals
Pycraft, W. P. (William Plane)
Animal behavior; Natural selection
The specialization of the air-sacs, that is to say their transformation
to perform new functions subservient to the ends of sexual activities,
is not exclusively confined to display. In at least one instance an
air-sac has been specially developed to act as a voice resonator.
This is furnished by the Emu, wherein the wind-pipe, near the middle
of its length and on its anterior aspect, has a number of incomplete
rings forming a long slit. The lining of the windpipe escapes from
this slit in a hernia-like pouch, and takes up a position beneath the
skin. Even when inflated this pouch gives no very obvious sign of its
existence, but it serves to produce a curious hollow, drumming sound,
like the boom of a big drum softly beaten. But why it should have been
developed, when the Ostrich and the Cassowary produce similar but
louder “music” without any special apparatus whatever, is a mystery. At
least one species of Cassowary can emit a roar which would do credit
to a lion.
In the males of all healthy animals the periodic stimulus to
reproduction finds expression in more or less striking eccentricity
of conduct. Sometimes, as the foregoing instances have shown, this
has been exaggerated by the development of long, resplendent plumes:
sometimes by brilliant coloration, displayed either by the plumage or
by bare areas of skin, or by both, while in not a few cases attitudes,
to our eyes grotesque and made still more so by the aid of inflatable
pouches, are the outward and visible sign of the raging fires within.
For the completion of this chapter yet other instances of this kind
must be cited, instances which reveal a further elaboration of some
of the more striking of these tricks of posturing; or which concern
the growth of the aggressive instincts, which are proclaimed by the
development of armature often of a very formidable character. As the
sequel shows, however, there are no hard and fast dividing lines
between these several modes of expression.
That remarkable bird, the Ruff (_Machetes pugnax_), now, alas! no
longer to be met with in our fens, exhibits a curiously composite
character in the phases of its love display.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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