8
Back Bay Basin,
Boston, Mass.
1909.
Feb. 27
(No 8)
a variety of odd and interesting motions some of
which were calculated to display it to the best
advantage. They kept calling, also, uttering a queer
strident note wholly new to me. The males which
were thus engaged were incessantly swimming to and
fro, shifting from one group of birds to another and
ever seeking or following the females with tireless
persistence, but without haste and with a decorous
restraint of manner most unusual in courting birds
and very interesting to behold. By no means all
the drakes took part in these proceedings. There were
at least five or six of them - handsome fellows, too -
who remained apart from the others, either in
solitary state or each in company with a female,
apparently its mate, and who busied themselves,
during the entire time I had them under observation,
Whistler courtship.
Manner in which drakes pursue the females.
Indifferent drakes