216 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



conclusions, and making a negative as against an affirmative one 

 of little or no value. Taken all together, these difficulties present 

 an appalling barrier. Here no arrangements are possible, no 

 markings, no comfortable study-work. All, or at least the greater 

 part — unless, perhaps, if one is rich, as an enthusiast ought to 

 be — is wretchedness, cold, and discomfort ; such, upon close 

 acquaintanceship, are the charms of early spring in north tem- 

 perate Europe. 



One must not hope, therefore, to see anything in the whole of 

 its proper sequence, or to get clear ideas as to all the elements, 

 disturbing or otherwise, which may enter into and complicate the 

 problem. One has to get at it piecemeal, and reason from the 

 main facts thus disclosed. A few of these, I think, are as 

 follows: — (1) conscious and elaborate display of the males of 

 some species before the females ; (2) care taken to show and 

 impress upon the female all that is best worth seeing ; (3) 

 interest — greater or less at different times — taken by the female 

 in such display, and corresponding effect — sufficient or insufficient 

 — produced upon her by it ; (4) repetition of the display when at 

 first insufficient, with results that justify such perseverance and 

 make it intelligible ; (5) interest taken by the female — more or 

 less and at different times — in the fighting of males on her 

 account ; and (6) her participation, at times, in these encounters, 

 readiness to attack, and competence to drive away one or other 

 of the contending males, or to keep other male3 from joining in 

 such contention. 



Another Eedshanks courtship, at 7 p.m., and, the wing- waving 

 on the part of the male first attracting my attention, I am par- 

 ticularly struck by the length of time during which it continues, 

 even after my noticing it. All at once, however, the female 

 darts away — the wooing has not been successful. This suggests 

 that the male may be aware when he has made sufficient im- 

 pression on the female, in this way, and not rise on the wing till 

 then. Lest it be assumed that the female was indifferent, all 

 this time, and then moved by chance, I just state that this was 

 not the case, and that I have never seen it so. I attribute her 

 conduct either to disinclination at the time, or to not being 

 sufficiently impressed by the male, or to both causes combined. 

 I do not attribute it to coyness, and my own observations might 



