SEPTEMBER 199 



and how variable that dress is, may be realised by any 

 one inspecting the case of stuffed ruffs and reeves in 

 the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



Mr. Edmund Selous has contributed to recent num- 

 bers of the Zoologist a diary of his laborious and 

 sustained observation of these birds during the court- 

 ing season on the coast of Holland. No bird lover 

 should miss the pleasure of reading the same. It 

 proves that, while every reeve manifests individual pre- 

 ference for one out of a competing crowd of parti- 

 coloured suitors, she is not averse from occasional, but 

 most pressing, advances from others. In short, the 

 reeve is far from being a model of conjugal fidelity, and 

 goes a good way in the direction of polyandry, which is 

 a system most rare among birds that ostensibly pair. 

 Still more rare and unlovely is the practice of such ruffs 

 as are unsuccessful in gaining the affection of a reeve ; 

 they work off their feelings by paying court to each other. 

 The whole story, as told in detail by Mr. Selous, is far 

 more interesting than any novel of ' sex,' and increases 

 one's chagrin that indiscriminate slaughter has put an 

 end for the present to the performance of this exciting 

 drama on the English stage. 



XLVIII 



Among the many devices provided by the agency 

 which we personify as Nature for the pro- Tlie 

 tection of living organisms, none is more American 

 effective than the plan of investing certain Bison 

 creatures with a menacing or repulsive exterior ; up to 



