84 BIRD WATCHING 



suspended or reversed by the bird that has been 

 separated getting up to the other two, when one of 

 these will often fall behind, so that now the bird 

 which was the follower makes one of the two 

 advanced ones, whilst one of these has taken its 

 place. As there is no sexual distinction in the plum- 

 age of peewits,* it is impossible to be quite sure to 

 what sex each of these birds belongs, but I believe 

 that two of them are male and female, and the third 

 a male, either of the two males being alternately in 

 the close company of the female. This, indeed, may 

 be in the nature of the matter. The pairing off of 

 the birds, we will suppose — as is likely at this time — 

 is not yet completed, and, assuming two of the three 

 to be of one sex, it may not be quite settled with 

 which of them the third will pair. It is not, indeed, 

 necessary to suppose that either of the three will even- 

 tually pair with one of the others, though this may be 

 probable. But what appears to me to obtain is this, 

 that the association of two birds (male and female) 

 together has a tendency to bring up a third, pre- 

 sumably a male, who envies this arrangement, and 

 would fain itself make one of the two. But how, 

 then, is the amicableness — or, at any rate, the absence 

 of any marked evidence of hostility — to be accounted 

 for? I believe that at this early season the sexual 

 feelings have not yet become fully developed, or so 

 strong as to produce jealousy to any active extent. 

 Things are only beginning, the emotions are, as yet, 

 in their infancy, and thus, I believe, the curious, not 

 fully defined nature of the actions of the three birds 

 — their seeming to be half unconscious of what they 



* For ordinary field observation at least. 



