301 

 SEX HABITS OF THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 



EDMUND SELOUS. 



(Continued fro77i page 200). 



March 2nd. — Walked round the Wilston reservoir and 

 noted the following love-actions performed by various pairs 

 of Grebes : — 



Pair 1 . — The two confront one another, with the nervous 

 twitchings and jerkings (depression and then a jerk upwards) 

 of the head, with or without contact of the bills, the facial 

 adornments being more or less raised and expanded. Then, 

 all at once, one makes a sudden short flight away from the 

 other, who remains approximately where it was. Coming 

 down, some way off, on the water, it swims back to its 

 companion, and then the whole thing, including the flight 

 and return, is repeated. It seemed to me fairly certain that 

 the flight was a part of the love-play and not made to chase 

 away a possible rival, for I could see none where the flying 

 bird came down. 



Pair 2. — The same ; but this was not quite so evident 

 here, for now several pairs had gathered into the same reedy 

 corner of the lake. However, I need have no doubt as to this, 

 since I have seen the same thing gone through by a pair of 

 the Horned Grebes, in Iceland, who had all a real lake to them- 

 selves. With them, however, there were no special movements 

 of the head. 



Pair 3. — Another instance of the weed-seizing display, 

 or ceremony, was the same in most of its details, but not all, 

 as those I noted down on February the 21st. As then, in 

 one case at any rate, after the head-twitching, the two birds 

 swam some way off, in opposite directions, but they emerged 

 with the weed, after diving, not together, but approximately 

 where they each went down, and swam with it to each other 

 again. Both then stood up in the water, still holding it, and 

 there was the characteristic tossing of the heads about, in more 

 or less close contiguity, but whether the weed was eaten or 

 dropped, or part one and part the other, I could not make out. 



Pair 4. — Two now meet and twitch for a little, then one 

 swims away from the other, dives and comes up, I think, 

 with some weed, but I am not quite clear as to this. It 

 swims to the other, and, a few minutes afterwards, again 

 away, without anything special having taken place. Again 

 this bird dives, and emerges with weed, on which the other 

 assumes Huxley's ' cat attitude,' which I had thought, but 

 wrongly, to be part of the hen's display only. Assuming 

 this, however, to be the case, now, the male, whilst she is 



1921 Sept. 1 



