288 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



nuptial antics — or, rather, the nuptial pose — of the 

 bird, is of a quite different character, being slow and 

 stiff, a sort of solemn formality. It belongs to the 

 land and not the water, where, indeed, it could 

 hardly be carried out. In making it, the two birds 

 advance, for a little — one behind the other — with a 

 certain something peculiar and highly strung in their 

 gait and general appearance. Then the foremost 

 one stops, and whilst a strange rigidity seems to 

 possess every part of him, he slowly bends the head 

 downwards, till the beak, almost touching the ground, 

 points inwards towards himself. Meantime the 

 other bird walks on, with an increasingly stilted, and, 

 withal, stealthy-looking step, and when a little way 

 in front of its companion, makes the same pose in 

 even an exaggerated manner, curving the bill so 

 much inwards, with the head held so low down, that 

 it may even overbalance and have to make a quick 

 step forward, or two, in order to recover itself. Here 

 we have another example — and there are many — of 

 a nuptial pose — between which and true sexual 

 display it is hard, even if it be possible, to fix a 

 line of demarcation — common to both the sexes ; 

 and, just as with the peewit, it is seen to the greatest 

 advantage, not before, but immediately after, coition, 

 in the act, or, rather, the two acts of which, the male 

 and female play interchangeable parts. There is 

 hermaphroditism, in fact, which must be real, 

 emotionally, if not functionally — for what else is 

 its raison d'etre ? 



Surely facts such as these deserve more attention 

 than they seem to have received. To me it appears 

 that not only must they have a most important 



