NOTES ON THE COVET SHIP OF TEE LAPWING. 223 



"nests " in question would be made when the bird was "hust- 

 ling " (c 1 and c 2), and there was no evidence that this 

 performance was gone through without any deliberate intention 

 of charming the hen. Indeed, it was observed just as frequently 

 when there was no female Peewit in the neighbourhood at all, 

 and seemed to be simply an outlet for the male's excitement. I 

 am not sure of the grounds of selection (if there was selection) 

 in this species, but I think that there was a purposive display 

 by the cock, and this display was not the " hustling" action at 

 all, but consisted in the exhibition of the coloured under tail 

 coverts. 



From his observations on the courtship of the Peewit, 

 Mr. Selous draws certain inferences as to the genesis of the 

 nest-building instinct in birds. It is common knowledge that 

 the handling of nesting material is a marked feature of the 

 courtship of some species. It has been recorded of the Tufted 

 Duck (Mr. S. E. Brock in ' British Birds '). I have observed it 

 myself in the Eeed-Bunting, and of non-British species it is only 

 necessary to mention the Ostrich, the Adelie Penguin, and the 

 Bower Birds. It would take too long to quote all of Mr. Selous's 

 very interesting and ingenious exposition of his theory, but, if I 

 have understood him rightly, he traces the original nest-building 

 impulse back to similar purposeless movements, which were due 

 to sexual excitement. " Its existence (the nest) would have been 

 due to excited and non-purposive movements, springing out of 

 the violence of the sexual emotions." I agree with Mr. Selous 

 that the courtship actions of the male have most probably arisen 

 thus, but what of the subsequent nest-building by the female ? 

 If the instinct of the hen to construct a nest has arisen from 

 actions that are the outcome of her own physical excitement, 

 why is it that we do not observe these actions more frequently 

 during the mating season ? It is not likely that the necessity 

 for amatory exercises as a way of working off emotion should 

 have lapsed in one sex and not in the other, especially when the 

 ancillary, or ought we to say the resultant, passion to make a 

 nest has persisted so strongly. According to the reasoning, we 

 ought to find that certain female birds go through the same 

 spring antics as the male. I know of none that do so, and Mr. 

 Selous himself does not give any example, except that of the 



