Sex Habits of the Great Crested Grebe. 305 



one and the other, might have passed, by degrees, into those 

 of display, and sexual display would, through sexual selection, 

 have brought about the growth of the head-lappets and 

 facial disk, with their special powers of erection and expansion. 

 Thus all would have gone together, the motion, set up through 

 an acquired nervous habit, or trick, the pleasure experienced 

 in that motion, which, in its highest development, may be 

 equivalent to the rhythmic one of dancing, and the enhanced 

 beauty, as a result of this.* Also, as the pleasure would be 

 remembered, this would add conscious to involuntary impulse, 

 in the initiation of the movement. That there are stages in 

 the want felt and the expression attained to, in the satisfaction 

 of it, is quite plain from watching the birds, but it is not so 

 easy to say whether such differences distinguish some in- 

 dividuals from others, or are common to all of them — whether 

 some only, or all, at some time, really dance with the head 

 and neck, or do little more than twitch or jerk it. Probably, 

 however, it faces both ways. 



The Annual Report of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society for 1920 

 contains an interesting list of additions to the Society's Museum. 



Mrs. Hester Forbes Julian, F.G.S., favours us with reprints of two of 

 her contributions to the Journal of the Torquay Natural History Society. 

 The first deals with ' The Scientific work and travels of Henry Forbes 

 Julian,' her husband, a traveller and well known as a metallurgist, who 

 was lost with the Titanic in 191 2 ; the second refers to ' The Scien- 

 tific Correspondence of Charles Kingsley and William Pengelly,' the 

 latter being her father. She gives many interesting facts respecting 

 these two well-known naturalists. 



Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston & Co. have issued a ' Bridlington 

 Souvenir ' (100 pp.) in connexion with the National Union of Teachers' 

 Conference at Bridlington this year. Its general ' get-up ' is rather 

 poor, compared with some N.U.T. souvenirs we have seen ; but this may 

 be due to the present conditions of printing, etc. Among the articles 

 contributed, we notice ' Prehistoric Bridlington,' by T. Sheppard ; 

 ' Nature Round Bridlington,' by J. F. Robinson ; ' East Yorkshire 

 Folk and Speech,' by A. N. Cooper ; ' The Cliffs, the Sea-Birds and 

 the Climbers,' by T. Audas ; and ' The Yorkshire Wolds,' by W. H. 

 Blakeston . 



* Since both the beautj' and the action by which it is displayed, in 

 a special manner, are here common to both sexes, sexual selections must 

 be assumed to have acted on both of them. It is inter-sexual selection, 

 as I have called it (with arguments) in my work, ' The Bird Watcher in 

 the Shetlands,' Chap. XXX. I think it has yet to be shown, as against 

 such affirmative evidence, that this joint form of sexual selection cannot 

 have been brought about through the general action of that principle, 

 as set forth by Darwin. It is true that Darwin himself did not believe 

 so, but only because sufficient evidence was then wanting, not because 

 he considered the two incompatible. The contrary, I think, appears 

 from his brief reference to the point (' Descent of Man,' 1888 Edit., 

 Vol. I., p. 348). His was a speculative rejection merely. He thought 

 it unlikely. 



1921 Sept. 1 



X 



