requently during the pairing season. The
male blackbird, for instance, is full of action as he woos his mate;
he flirts his tail, spreads his glossy wings, hops and turns; chases
the hen, and all the time chuckles with delight. Similar antics are
performed by the whitethroat. The male redwing, again, struts about
before his female, sweeping the ground with his tail, and acting the
dandy.[61] The crested duck raises his head gracefully, straightens
his silky aigrette, struts and bows to his female, while his throat
swells and he utters a sort of guttural note.[62] The common shield
duck, geese, wood-pigeons, carrion-vultures, and many other birds have
been observed to dance, spread their tails, chase one another, and
perform many strange courting parades. A careful observer of birds,
Mr. E. Selous, who is quoted by Havelock Ellis,[63] has found that all
bird dances are not nuptial, but that some birds--the stone-curlew (or
great plover), for example--have different kinds of dancing. The
nuptial dances are taken part in by both the male and female, and are
immediately followed by conjugation; but there are as well other
dances or antics of a non-sexual character, which may be regarded as
social, and these too are indulged in by both sexes.

The love-fights of swallows, linnets and kingfishers, and the curious
aerial evolution of the swift are similar manifestations of vigour and
delight in movement[64] as a sexual excitant to pairing. Some male
doves have a remarkable habit of driving the hen for a few days before
she lays the eggs. On these occasions his whole time is spent in
keeping her on the move, and he never allows her to settle or rest for
a minute except on the nest.[65]

This last case affords a striking illustration of the real object of
all these elaborate movements. The male albatross, an ugly and
dull-coloured bird,[66] during courtship stands by the female on the
nest, raises his wings, spreads his tail, throws up his head with the
bill in the air, or stretches it straight out or forwards as far as he
can, and then utters a curious cry.[67] But the most interesting
example that I have been able to find recorded of dancing among birds
is the habit of waltzing, common to the male, and in a lesser degree
to the female ostrich. It is thus described by S. Cronwright
Schreiner.[68]

"After running a few yards they (the ostriches) will stop, and
with raised wings spin round rapidly for some time until q