also stop, and, with raised wings, spin around rapidly for some time after until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs....  Vicious cocks ‘roll’ when challenging to fight or when wooing the hen.  The cock will suddenly bump down on to his knees (the ankle-joint), open his wings, and then swing them alternately backward and forward, as if on a pivot....  While rolling, every feather over the whole body is on end, and the plumes are open, like a large white fan.  At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all; in fact, he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed.  Just before rolling, a cock, especially if courting the hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright, and rigid, the tail half-drooped, and all his body-feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing separately, like an open fan.  In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of his plumage displayed to such advantage.”  (S.C.  Cronwright Schreiner, “The Ostrich,” Zooelogist, March, 1897.)

As may be seen from the foregoing fairly typical examples, the phenomena of courtship are highly developed, and have been most carefully studied, in animals outside the mammal series.  It may seem a long leap from birds to man; yet, as will be seen, the phenomena among primitive human peoples, if not, indeed, among many civilized peoples also, closely resemble those found among birds, though, unfortunately, they have not usually been so carefully studied.

In Australia, where dancing is carried to a high pitch of elaboration, its association with the sexual impulse is close and unmistakable.  Thus, Mr. Samuel Gason (of whom it has been said that “no man living has been more among blacks or knows more of their ways”) remarks concerning a dance of the Dieyerie tribe:  “This dance men and women only take part in, in regular form and position, keeping splendid time to the rattle of the beat of two boomerangs; some of the women keep time by clapping their hands between their thighs; promiscuous sexual intercourse follows after the dance; jealousy is forbidden.”  Again, at the Mobierrie, or rat-harvest, “many weeks’ preparation before the dance comes off; no quarreling is allowed; promiscuous sexual intercourse during the ceremony.”  The fact that jealousy is forbidden at these festivals clearly indicates that sexual intercourse is a recognized and probably essential element in the ceremonies.  This is further emphasized by the fact that at other festivals open sexual intercourse is not allowed.  Thus, at the Mindarie, or dance at a peace festival (when a number of tribes comes together), “there is great rejoicing at the coming festival, which is generally held at the full of the moon, and kept up all night.  The men are artistically decorated with down and feathers,