21
Back Bay Basin,
Boston, Mass.
1909.
Feb.27
(No 21)
Whistler courtship
mandible pointing straight upward. When in this
posture the bird bore a ludicrously close resemblance
to a duck skin prepared after the style so much 
in vogue thirty or forty years ago, that is to say
with the neck folded over on the back. In the skin,
however, the head was differently disposed being
placed on its side to save as much vertical space
as possible in the cabinet drawer. The living bird
would ordinarily remain in the attitude just described
from half a second to a full second or perhaps two
seconds but rarely longer than that. At the close of
this brief period of inaction the head and neck
would swing forward, usually less rapidly and
abruptly than when carried backward, sometimes pausing
for a moment, when the mast head position might be
taken, but as a rule continuing to move without
Back thrust & folded skin posture