462 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



where the bird had rolled, they would be laid in the midst of such 

 a collection, which would, of course, be increased, were the female 

 bird to act in a similar way, and in the same place. Nor is this 

 last so unlikely, for in many species both sexes indulge in 

 the same odd postures and contortions during the breeding 

 season. 



All the above suppositions have been suggested to me by 

 what I have actually seen birds do whilst under the influence of 

 strong sexual excitement, and, though I am ready to admit that 

 the foundation of fact may have been slight in comparison with 

 the superstructure of theory raised upon it, yet there can be no 

 harm in a provisional hypothesis ; and, besides, what is the use 

 of staring at facts with eyes that have " no speculation " in 

 them ? For myself, I shall always strive to see the causes of 

 things with the things ; nor do I know of anything worse that 

 can happen to one by this method than to have it pronounced on 

 all hands that one's theories are " less happy " than one's records 

 of facts, a dictum which, till argument is met by argument, one 

 may take to mean something like this — " We are equal to a fact 

 or two, but theories make our heads spin round." 



(To be continued.) 



" The nest. — . ..." made by the pair together. The cock goes down on 

 to his breast, scraping or kicking the sand out backwards with his feet, &e. 

 The hen stands hy, often fluttering and clicking her wings, and helps by 

 picking up the sand with her beak, and dropping it irregularly near the edge 

 of the growing depression. 



"The little emhanTiinent round the nest. . . . The sitting bird, while on 

 the nest, sometivies pecTcs tlie sand up luitli its beah nearly as far frotn the 

 nest as it can reach, and drops it around the body. A little embankment is 

 thus gradually formed. . . . The formation .... is aided by a peculiar habit 

 of the birds. TiTien the bird on the nest is much excited (as by the approach 

 of other birds or people) it snaps up the sand spasmodically without rising 

 from the nest, and without lifting its head more than a few inches from the 

 ground. The bank is raised by such sand as falls inward. The original nest 

 is merely a shallow depression." 



Remarks follow on the use of the bank, which has become a part — and 

 an important part — of the nest. We, however, are concerned with the 

 origin both of it and the depression. It seems clear, from the account, that 

 the former is sometimes made, or added to, when there can hardly be an in- 

 tention of making it : whilst, to make the latter, the cock assumes the atti- 

 tude of sexual ixenzy (described in the same paper), which is one, as it seems 

 to me, hardly necessary for mere scratching alone. Had the latter, however, 

 grown out of the former, we can well understand the characteristic posture 

 being continued. The itaUcs are my own. 



