THE RAW MATERIAL 167 



experience, spring-time after spring-time, to lay their 

 eggs, so that I judge them to pair for life. It is 

 well known that the peewit does produce hollows in 

 the way described — as, indeed, he could hardly 

 avoid doing — and as he is constantly rolling in 

 various places numbers of such little empty cups 

 are to be found about the bird's breeding haunts. 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, in his " Manual of British 

 Birds," says, alluding to the spring-tide activities of 

 the peewit, " The * false nests ' often found are scraped 

 out by the cock in turning round, when showing off 

 to the female." I have shown what the bird's 

 movements on these occasions really are. They 

 have upon them, in my opinion, the plain stamp of 

 the primary sexual impulse, and it is out of this 

 that anything which can be looked upon as in the 

 nature of a conscious display must have grown. 

 There is, indeed, evidence to show that one bird 

 performing these actions may be of interest to 

 another, but in spite of this and of the bright 

 colour of the under tail-coverts (which I have seen 

 apparently examined, even touched, by one peewit, 

 whilst another, their owner, was rolling), it may be 

 said that, in the greater number of cases, the per- 

 forming bird is paid no attention to, and does not, 

 itself, appear to wish to be, being often, to all intents 

 and purposes, alone. What relation, then, do such 

 actions, which are not confined to the peewit, 

 bear to the more pronounced and undoubted cases 

 of sexual display ? They are, I believe, the raw 

 material out of which these latter have arisen — 

 sometimes, at least, if not always. I have, also, 

 shown that it is not the male peewit, only, that rolls. 



