210 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the male walked, a little, with his tail fanned, and then made 

 what looked like a little bellicose run at the female— corning, I 

 think, into contact with her. Another Eedshanks now came up, 

 on which the female — I had kept them distinct — flew at it, and, 

 putting it to flight, chased it, on the wing, right away. Here, 

 again, we see the female not restricted to the passive part of 

 rejection, if we suppose this new comer, as seems likely, to have 

 been a male. We see, too — if it was, indeed, the same pair, 

 which I think it was — the female Redshanks thrice wooed by the 

 same male, unwilling at first, or even hostile, but yielding to the 

 third display. How like is this to the wooings of certain 

 spiders, as recorded in a most interesting and valuable paper by 

 George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham. For instance : " Once 

 we saw a female eagerly watching a prancing male, and, as he 

 slowly approached her, she raised her legs as if to strike him ; 

 but he, nothing daunted by her unkindly reception of his atten- 

 tions, advanced even nearer, when she seized him, and seemed 

 to hold him by the head for a minute — he struggling. At last 

 he freed himself, and ran away. This same male, after a time, 

 courted her successfully." In both these cases, as it seems to 

 me, the ultimate surrender of the female is stronger evidence of 

 the efficacy of the display than if it had been successful at once. 

 With the bird, as well as with the spider, there has been more 

 than mere indifference to conquer. 



I have spoken of the male Eedshanks as waving his wings, in 

 this manner, before the female, but by this I only mean before 

 her eyes and senses. It is behind her, not in front of her, that 

 he commonly stands, and this relative position of the two is 

 retained in the aerial part. This used to seem to me against the 

 theory of sexual selection, but what I have just witnessed shows 

 that the female knows well enough what is going on — in fact, as, 

 in the first case, she moved just at the psychical moment, she 

 must see accurately. It may be said that she moved so by 

 chance merely, but her whole attitude and deportment over a 

 not inconsiderable space of time is against this supposition. A 

 bird's eyes, in fact, are situated very differently to our own. The 

 male bird, though behind the female, need not be directly behind 

 her, and his waved wings are, so to speak, all about him. With 

 an eye on each side of her small head, the slightest turn of this 



