648 MR. J. S. nUXLBY ON THE 



and was able to see the whole of the courtship and pairing. 

 When I say the whole, I do not mean that I saw evei-y detail, 

 nor that every detail I saw is clear to me. But I mean that 

 I know what is the general course of events, and can interpret 

 the birds' beliaviour more or less consistently. 



On returning to civilization and libraries, to my surprise I 

 could find very little on the subject : the observations recorded 

 were either fragmentary or inaccurate. It was not until most 

 of this paper was written that I discovered a fairly complete 

 account by Selous *. This had remained undiscovered owing to 

 the absence of any reference to Redshanks in the title of the 

 paper or in the index of the volume. 



I have thought it worth while to publish my observations, 

 however, since they differ in several points from those of Selous. 

 Meanwhile, I fully realize their incompleteness, and recognize 

 that they cannot as yet be properly used in any general discussion 

 of the theory of sexual selection. I hope to continue my own 

 observations when opportunity offers, but venture to publish 

 this general outline at once as a stimulus to other bird-watchers 

 and naturalists. 



2. Locality, etc, 



Before passing on to the birds' actions I must first just 

 mention the theatre where I saw them played. This was part of 

 a small estuary in the irorthern half of Cardigan Bay : an arm 

 runs out on one side at right angles to the river, thus giving 

 during high spring tides a land-locked sheet of water nearly a 

 mile long and half a mile wide ; during neaps, even high tide 

 failed to cover it. Numbers of Redshanks and other birds fre- 

 quented this expanse, and especially its head or most landward 

 end, where they were close to a thick bed of reeds and tussocks ; 

 the mud here was scarcely ever covered by the tide, though kept 

 always moist by a little stream. 



At one side of the head was a low ridge of grass-covered 

 dunes, about five feet high and thirty or forty feet long, with level 

 ground behind them. Thus, by crawling over the flat, I could 

 get up to the dunes into an excellent position for viewing the 

 whole top of the bay ; every bird was easily seen against the wet 

 mud. So I kept watch with the naked eye until some disturb- 

 ance or unusual behaviour attracted attention ; then, being armed 

 with a telescope magnifying 30 diameters (for the loan of which 

 I have to thank my brother, Mr. IST. T. Huxley), I focussed this 

 on the spot, and could see the minutest details of attitude and 

 behaviour in the nearer birds, and even in those on the far side 

 of the bay could quite well interpret what I saw. I made a 

 number of notes on the spot, and usually within twenty-four 

 hours embodied what I had seen the day before in a letter to 

 an oi"nitho] ogical friend. 



* E. Selous, " Observations tending to throw light on the Question of Sexual 

 Selection in Birds," etc., Part 1 : Zoologist (4) x., 1906, pp. 201-219. 



