200 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
to be read rather than criticised ; it contains much information 
that is not easily accessible, and is written from a sound 
evolutionary purview. The illustrations are to the point. 

At the meeting of the Zoological Society of London (April 
23rd, 1912) Mr. Julian S. Huxley read a paper containing an 
account of the courtship of the Redshank (Votanus calidris). 
The first purpose of this paper was to draw attention to the 
many valuable results to be obtained by simple watching of 
very common British birds; and the second was to show how 
the facts observed in the Redshank bore on the theory of Sexual 
Selection. In this species there was no rival display between - 
several males at once: a single female was courted by a single 
male, as in Man. The courtship started with a pursuit, the 
hen running in a circuitous course, followed by the cock. The 
pursuit was followed by a display, but only if the hen were 
willing that the courtship should continue. During the display 
the cock uttered a special note, spread his tail, raised his wings 
above his back, and advanced with a curious high-stepping 
action towards the now stationary female. If the female so 
wished, pairing followed the display. But in quite ninety per 
cent. of observed courtships the female rejected the male, either 
during the pursuit or during the display, by simply flying away, 
when the cock was quite powerless to enforce his desires. Thus 
the consent of the hen was absolutely necessary if pairing were 
to take place, and this consent was usually withheld; in other 
words, selection by the female was a reality in the Redshank. 
Other interesting points were as follows:—The plumage of 
the two sexes was identical, and was decidedly cryptic when the 
birds were at rest. During flight the white under side of the 
wings and the white tail were conspicuously revealed, and 
probably served as recognition marks. The significance of the 
red legs was unknown. During display the male drew attention 
to the underside of the wings by raising and vibrating them, to 
the tail by fanning it out, and to the red legs by his slow, high 
steps; besides this he uttered a note heard at no other time. 
Thus, since the actual colours and structures used in display 
were found in both sexes, the only peculiarly male possession— 
the only secondary sexual character of the Redshank—was a 
special behaviour, devoted to showing off these common colours 
and structures in a special way. 
This seemed to show that secondary sexual differences in 
birds were originally differences of behaviour, and that only 
when these were established did differences of colour and 
structure come to be developed. 
