BIRD-HAUNTED LONDON 113 



I have observed myself (and Mr, Edmund Selous 

 says the same thing) that the blackhead also pursues 

 lapwings who have picked up larvae from the ploughed 

 fields. The gull chases the lapwing, who doubles to and 

 fro, until suddenly the former gives a convulsive twist 

 in the air — he has caught the larva dropped by the 

 lapwing. Yet the gulls live quite amicably with the 

 ducks and lapwings ; there is neither animosity on 

 the one hand nor fear on the other. The relation (and 

 Mr. Selous's observations of gulls with lapwings suggest 

 the same conclusion) is accepted on both sides ; it has 

 become institutional, and the victims accept this tribute- 

 levying or Income-Tax-gathering as part of the normal 

 routine of life. Is mankind less or more fatalistically 

 irrational ? 



So different are the dingy browns and greys of 

 the female tufted ducks from the strongly contrasted 

 blacks and whites of the males, that at some distance 

 away the two might readily be taken for different species. 

 The colours of females and young, of course, usually 

 represent the parent form of the species, where the 

 males (see Pycraft, Courtship of Animals) have not 

 yet handed on their colour entail to the females. 

 Thus to see the bright male and the dull female of 

 the same species together is an impressive shorthand 

 of the progress of evolution, of the great advancing 

 tide of beauty, rolling up like dawn and then day 

 from the caverns of neutral beginning. It is moving to 

 think of these wild birds of the wild north travelling from 

 their storm-beaten homes in one little group after 

 another, all to the same little stretch of quiet water 

 in London, so unerringly and companionably, and to 

 see them grow, first 7, then 9, then 15, then 18, then 

 21, then 65 in the winter of 1920, to a final crescendo 

 of 120, with 12 pochard, a bridge (the mantle) of the 

 softest vermiculated lavender-grey uniting with the 

 black tail-coverts and the chestnut head and neck, in 

 their company. The good news of the security of this 

 London water had gone forth. By the end of March 

 they had all gone. Mallards and (once) a widgeon con- 

 sorted with them. 



8 



