COURTSHIPS OF LABRADOR BIRDS 



and then returned to its normal position. All 

 this the drake does swimming near the duck, 

 often facing her in his eagerness, while she 

 floats about indifferently, or at times shows her 

 interest and appreciation by facing him and 

 throwing up her head a little in a gentle imita- 

 tion of his force fulness. 1 



Another duck whose courtship antics are 

 even more interesting than those of the eider is 

 the American golden-eye or whistler, the plan- 



Abbott H. Thayer's statement in the Introduction to 

 Gerald H. Thayer's wonderfully interesting book on 

 " Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom " that 

 " This discovery that patterns and utmost contrasts of 

 colour (not to speak of appendages') on animals make 

 wholly for their ' obliteration,' is a fatal blow to the vari- 

 ous theories that these patterns exist mainly as nuptial 

 dress, warning colours, mimicry devices (f. e., mimicry of 

 one species by another), etc., since these are all attempts 

 to explain an entirely false conception that such patterns 

 make their wearers conspicuous," seems to me hard to 

 believe in the case of the male eider. I have watched this 

 bird on land, on water and in the air, on rocks, in bogs 

 and among bushes both green and brown, among icebergs 

 and ice floes, and, if I were a gyr falcon intent on eider 

 flesh, I should not wish for a more conspicuous mark. I 

 can not help thinking that the brilliant orange-yellow legs 

 of the male golden-eye, the vivid blue lining of the mouth 

 of the double-crested cormorant and the wonderful black 

 belly-shield of the male eider are instances of the work- 

 ings of sexual selection. 



89 



