102 BIRD WATCHING 



of these skuas. May not some of the figures of 

 animals in heraldry have come right down from 

 savage times, even if they do not represent totems ? 

 Savages, as we know, catch the more salient and 

 strongly characterised attitudes of animals with ^won- 

 derful truth and force. 



The two birds will often (as might be expected) 

 assume this pose without any previous descent on up- 

 raised wings, and, presumably, such descent need not 

 be followed either by this or any other special attitude. 

 Also, when so posing, they do not always stand in 

 line, but indifferently sometimes, as far as relative 

 position is concerned, though at the same approximate 

 distance from one another. I have seen the descent 

 followed by the pose, but not in line, and I have seen 

 the pose exactly as I have described it, but not pre- 

 ceded by the descent. 



Obviously (or, at least, in all probability), the birds 

 would be as likely to stand in line when posing on 

 one occasion as on another, and I have therefore put 

 them into line here to give a picture of this nuptial 

 sport when at its best and fullest. 



Sometimes during these visits that the birds pay 

 to each other, the two will bend their heads down 

 together and pick and pull at the grass. When they 

 raise them there may be a blade or two of it in the 

 bill of one, which is allowed to drop in a negligent, 

 desultory way. Or one, which I take to be the 

 female, plucks up a tuft and walks with it to the male 

 as though to show him. She lets it drop, and then 

 both birds, standing front to front, lower their heads 

 at the same time and utter a shrill though not a loud 

 cry. This seems as though one bird were suggesting 



