SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 61 



their ease. Still it appears evident that they are in a state of 

 real, though suppressed excitement, and the bustles are repeated, 

 from time to time, without any independent cause — such, for in- 

 stance, as the arrival of other birds — though when several more 

 do fly in there is, naturally, a commotion. Amongst these there 

 is the one that was caressed, several times, by a Eeeve yesterday 

 — whether she was the one now here I cannot say. He is not 

 caressed now, however, nor is any other Ruff, and after a while 

 the Eeeve, followed by most of them — he included — flies off. In 

 about five minutes she returns alone. 



The fighting, on those occasions when the birds make their 

 little bustles as I have called them — little runs or turnings 

 whilst still crouched to the ground, and either close about the 

 Eeeve or yet, seemingly, with reference to her — is of very short 

 duration — a spring or two, which is often hardly more than a 

 threatening, and all is over. 



Most of the Ruffs that went off, a little while ago, with the 

 Eeeve, have now come back, but, before long, she leads almost 

 all the flock off again. There are now, at 4.20, only four remain- 

 ing, the brown bird and his former companion making two of 

 them. Several times, after a blank space, these two have come 

 and stood or sat alone, and they must, I think, spend two hours 

 to most of the other's one upon the ground, and an even greater 

 proportion than that to the time that some of them spend there. 

 The most interesting evidence of superior attachment to the 

 meeting-ground on the part of some birds to others, was the 

 persistency with which this same brown Euff — he is the only 

 one brown all over — stayed there, and returned again, shortly, 

 whenever he left, when no other of them would, for a long time, 

 alight, or stay more than a moment or two, if they did. 



April 24th. — Get to my watch-house about 3.15 p.m., putting 

 up four birds, two of which are the brown one and that other 

 habitue. After a time a Reeve arrives, all the Ruffs sink down 

 in the orthodox manner, but one rises very soon, and is now 

 standing with head turned back, and beak amongst its back 

 feathers. All at once two birds bounce up and dash at each 

 other. It is over, however, as usual, almost ere well begun, and 

 another sudden commotion hardly leads to a fight. All this 

 might have happened without the Reeve, and a fight which took 



