COURTSHIPS OF LABRADOR BIRDS 



Selous, 1 who has watched sea-birds in the 

 Shetlands, says of the puffin: " One of the birds, 

 standing so as directly to face the other, will 

 often raise and then again lower, the head, 

 some eight or nine times in succession, in a half 

 solemn manner, at the same time opening its 

 gaudy beak, sometimes to a considerable ex- 

 tent, yet all the time without uttering a sound." 

 Not only is the outside of the beak gaudy in 

 scarlet with white and blue lines, but the inside 

 with its brilliant yellow lining is superlatively 

 so, and is probably, as Selous suggests, de- 

 veloped as a result of sexual selection. The 

 inside of the mouth of the double crested cor- 

 morant is a vivid blue that of the European 

 shag described by Selous is curiously enough a 

 " bright gamboge yellow " while on opening 

 the mouth of a black guillemot I found it to be 

 scarlet, All these birds open wide the beak in 

 courtship, according to Selous. 



Among many of our smaller birds it fre- 

 quently happens in the height of the spring 

 season and in the ecstasy of their passion that 

 they rise into the air with rapidly fluttering 



^he Bird Watcher in the Shetlands. London, 1905, 

 p. 246. 



97 



