HABITS OF THE ORE AT CBESTED QBEBE. 345 



water for a little, then swim together to the nest, and, keeping 

 them perfectly distinct through the glasses, I cau say with con- 

 viction that it is the male who again, now, leaps up, makes the 

 pose, and assumes the final attitude so often mentioned. The 

 female now acts as before for a little, but on — I think — the first 

 return after swimming a short distance out, springs up, and 

 pairing takes place, she performing, as far as attitude and relative 

 position are concerned — absolutely as far as the eye is capable of 

 detecting — the function and office of the male. Immediately 

 after the pairing she comes forward along the body of the male 

 — on which (as in every case upon either side) she stands perfectly 

 upright — and takes the water, whilst the latter remains on the 

 nest for a little while afterwards before coming down and following 

 her — for she has now swum away. As just before in the ascent, 

 the glasses again say decidedly that it is the male that has 

 descended last from the nest, and the female that has come off 

 before and swum away. The difference in size between the two 

 is very apparent, and if we say (as anyone seeing this morning's 

 drama alone would say) that the larger bird is the female, then I 

 have seen this very bird act last year, time and time again, as the 

 male, whilst the other (which we must in that case suppose to he 

 the male) acted, in the pairing process, the usual part of the 

 female. It must also be remembered that, although last year the 

 transmutation of sexes — as we may call it — between the two birds 

 was not carried by the female to this extreme point, yet up to 

 this point, and in every other particular I saw each of them 

 assume, alternately, and in more or less immediate succession, 

 the character proper to the other. Personally, therefore, I have 

 no further doubt as to this salient peculiarity (for as such it 

 strikes me) in the sexual relations of these Grebes, and, as I can 

 see nothing here, in the shape of artificial conditions, to suggest 

 its being an individual one (or, rather, an idiosyncrasy shared by 

 two individuals), I suppose it to be specific. If so, that vitiation 

 of the sexual instincts in domesticated birds to which Darwin 

 may perhaps allude (' The Descent of Man,' p. 415) may not 

 really be due to artificial conditions, but natural, in the ordinary 

 sense of the word ; for, of course, in a larger sense, everything 

 is, and must be, natural, a fact not sufficiently appreciated by 

 those who, in their investigations — or rather, let us say, their 



