326 
Auffenberg 
function of territorial display is well estab- 
lished in the bird literature. 
Homosexual courtship and even mounting 
attempts were witnessed on several occa- 
sions. All the attempts were by young, rela- 
tively inexperienced individuals and were 
completely ignored by large males, such as 
19W. Rand (1967) reports similar homo- 
sexual behavior in the iguanid genus Anolis. 
The only difference in homo- and heterosexual 
courtship behavior was that males always 
ran away, whereas females ran away only 
when the male was not accepted. 
The following courtship sequence taken 
from field notes of March 2, 1970 illustrates 
the typical pattern : 
10:55 AM. 19W moves out of brush, ap- 
proaches 23W, attempts to 
bite her back, and is then 
unsuccessful in his rapid 
attempt to mount her. 23W 
presents appeasement display 
to 19W and then moves to 
shade. 19W eats carrion. 
11:05 19W, still eating, threatens 
23W as she approaches car- 
rion, and 23W retreats to 
shade. 19W still eating. 23W 
approaches carrion, and both 
eat side by side. 19W stops 
feeding and scratches 23W on 
on her side and her face with 
the claws of his right front 
foot. 23W moves in circle and 
returns, with weak appease- 
ment display. They again eat 
side by side. 23W moves into 
shade, then back to carrion, 
where they again feed side 
by side. 
11:15 19W suddenly mounts 23W, 
slides off, and retires to brush. 
23W continues to eat. 19W 
presents appeasement display 
to 23W several times as he 
moves to carrion, though he 
quickly returns to shade. 
11:20 With no prior movement on 
the part of either individual. 
19W dashes out of shade and 
chases 23 W, who runs 15 m 
into brush. He returns to car- 
rion, eats, and suddenly spins 
around and chases 23W for 
8 m. When she stops, 19W 
threatens her, and she imme- 
diately runs away, stopping 
only when 19W returns to 
food. 
11:A0 19W feeding and 23W again 
approaching carrion. 
11 .%5 19W retires to shade as 23W 
comes close to carrion, but is 
then chased by 19W. She is 
quickly mounted, though 19W 
slides off in a few seconds. 
As she rests with belly and 
tail on the ground and head 
in an attentive pose, he rubs 
her entire back with the sides 
of his face. 19W again mounts 
23W, but immediately slides 
off. He scratches her back 
with the claws of his right 
front foot, then stops, and 
moves slightly anteriorly, 
again scratching her with his 
right foot (Fig. 16). He then 
mounts her completely, with 
his front legs clasped around 
her body just behind her front 
legs and his hindlegs on either 
side of the base of her tail 
(Fig. 17). 23W remains com- 
pletely passive. After few 
moments he slides off and 
scratches her over her hip 
and back, suddenly again 
mounting her completely. Af- 
ter a few seconds he slides 
off, nudging and licking her 
side at the insertion of the 
hind limb with her body, and 
rubbing the sides of his face 
in the same area. He then 
scratches her back anterior 
to the hips. She remains very 
still, and he again mounts her 
completely, slides off imme- 
