268 Huxley, Bird-watching and Biological Science. [juiy 



come swooping down the wind straight at the hen (who was 

 perched on a bough), swerving high into the air when barely a 

 yard from her; sometimes he would swing up so close to her 

 that she would start back fluttering so as not to fall off her perch. 

 A friend who knows the Peregrine Falcon in the Welsh mountains 

 tells me that similar but even more startling evolutions are per- 

 formed by the cock in this species. On the other hand, when it 

 comes to incubation and the feeding of the j^oung, it is the large 

 and strong female who apparently usurps most of the ordinary 

 duties of the male, for she does most of the catching of prey, 

 while he sits longer on the eggs and young (see Heatherly, '13). 

 It is obvious that observations here will be of interest. 



In the Belted Kingfisher, the hen has a chestnut breast-band, 

 which is absent in the cock. Here the female would appear to be 

 the brighter, and investigation of the courtship, with this in mind, 

 might be of value. 



Finally I would suggest that the nuptial habits of the Turkey 

 Buzzard and Black Vulture would be interesting from a quite 

 special point of view. It is either an obvious, or else a startling 

 fact, according to your point of view, to find that the lower animals 

 have on the whole the same basis of aesthetic standards as ourselves. 

 This is shown, for instance, by the preponderance of colors and 

 forms that are agreeable to us in the courtship-structures of birds 

 and other animals, or by the fact that flowers attract bees and 

 butterflies by means of colors and scents that we too find beautiful 

 or pleasant. On the other hand, some flowers rely for their fertiliza- 

 tion upon carrion-feeding flies, and the colors they have developed 

 are lurid yellows or fleshy pinks, with odors that are strong and 

 often disagreeable (to us). (See Weismann, the Evolution Theory.) 



The American Vultures too are carrion-feeders; such "orna- 

 ments" as they possess — the naked colored skin of the head, 

 and the frill of feathers round the neck, are, although striking 

 enough, yet hideous to our eyes. It would be a further notable 

 piece of evidence in favor of Professor Washburn's idea of the 

 animal mind, a further corroboration of the idea that there are 

 spiritual as well as material natural laws underlying biological facts, 

 if it were found that the courtship-action of these scavengers lacked 

 all the normal grace of birds' love-making, and were to our eyes as 



