COURTSHIP OF THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 513 
a few feet from the searcher. This is merely to reconnoitre his 
position ; head and neck alone appear, the crest not erected, and 
are swiftly withdrawn again, The final appearance takes place 
almost always beyond the searcher, and the bird emerges with its 
back to the other, facing it only as, revolving on its axis, it settles 
down. The performance always ends with a bout of shaking. 
Although in my “typical” cases the searcher has always been 
the female, yet the male may also search for his mate in the same 
way. I have watched an obvious cock in the regular Dundreary 
(search) attitude for a long time; only on this occasion no mate 
responded to the call. Further watching is necessary to see 
whether it is merely an accident that my searchers have usually 
been hens, or whether my observations represent reality. (It may 
possibly be connected with the fact that the hens seem to spend 
more time on the nest than the cocks; but this is mere con- 
jecture. ) 
(c) The Display Ceremony is quite different. The birds are 
already together, and the display is simply a form of excitement 
similar to the bouts of shaking. In typical cases the pair will be 
indulging in a bout of shaking; suddenly one of them flies off a 
few yards and puts itself into the full Cat-position, showing its 
circular ruff and white-striped wings to its mate. There is no 
diving, however, and, after some seconds’ display, the birds swim 
together and there is another bout of shaking; after this they 
simply swim off, or separate, or feed. Hither eock or hen may go 
‘into the Cat- attitude. In one ease the first bout of shaking ‘had 
been preceded by a “ flirtation” (p. 521) on the part of the cock. 
To show how one ceremony may blend into another, I adduce 
the following instance :—There was a regular Discovery Ceremony, 
the hen calling to the cock, but with this difference, that they 
swam together, shook, and the hen flapped off and went into the 
Cat-position, oral that only then did the cock remember, so to 
speak, to do the ghost-dive (p. 498). Another mixed “cer emony,” 
this time more closely related to pure display, is related on p. 547. 
(2) Finally comes the ceremony of the Penguin-dance. I have 
little to add to the description already given (p. AQ9): Wwice, 
curiously enough, a single pair was seen to perform the dance 
‘twice In a morning. This might imply that some special physio- 
logical state, pr obal ly of high excitement, was necessary for the 
act, ror I only saw it on two other occasions, and Selous only saw 
it once. 
The performance can only be gone through when both 
are equally excited; for instance, once (p. 547) after a bout of 
shaking the cock dived and fetched weed from the bottom. The 
hen, however, was not stimulated to do so too, and when he came 
up he found no answering stimulus, and so dropped the weed as 
he swam towards his mate. 
There is no reason for supposing even this elaborate ceremony 
to have any direct relation whatever with coition. It is a form 
