AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND 119 



under and just beyond, and, as its mate swings round 

 to the new orientation, emerges in a really extraor- 

 dinary attitude. At the last it must have dived a 

 little deeper; for now it appears perpendicularly from 

 the water, with a slowish motion, slightly spiral, the 

 beak and head pressed down along the front of the 

 neck. I compared it in my notes of ten years ago 

 with ''the ghost of a Penguin," and that comparison 

 is still the best I can think of to give some idea of 

 the strange unreality of its appearance. It then 

 settles down upon the water and the pair indulge 

 in one of their never-failing bouts of head-shaking. 



Two mated birds rejoin each other after a few 

 hours' separation. Simple enough in itself — but 

 what elaboration of detail, what piling on of little 

 excitements, what purveying of thrills! 



Other emotions too can be well studied in this bird, 

 notably jealousy. Several times I have seen little 

 scenes like the following enacted. A pair is floating 

 idly side by side, necks drawn right down so that the 

 head rests on the centre of the back. One — gener- 

 ally, I must admit, it has been the cock, but 1 think 

 the hen may do so too on occasion — rouses himself 

 from the pleasant lethargy, swims up to his mate, 

 places himself in front of her, and gives a definite, 

 if repressed, shake of the head. It is an obvious sign 

 of his desire to ''have a bit of fun" — to go through 

 with one of those bouts of display and head-shaking 

 in which pleasurable emotion clearly reaches its high- 

 est level in the birds' lives, as any one who has 



