Zoo Dept. 
15 
2)€c44*,6«r 
Dear Martin 
This letter breaks a very long silence, but 
we have been rather busy with a report since we got back, which 
was designed for the natural history society who allows us 
would like to see some sort of account of our work in the last 
couple of years so I am sending you the reports such a s they 
are. They are very unsui&fcble for your eye as we appreciate 
is a good deal of padding in my reports, especially on the 
non-reproductive sides beca ise I wanted to give the impression 
that we were occasionally interested in other things than how 
the little creatafts pro create A. But you and I know that 
nothing else could be so absorbing ?? We hope to go back for 
one more season though only a short one as I must start writing 
up this winter and I would like to get the shag stuff Clnished. 
At any rate we don’t plan to go back much before the terns 
arrive and as they are sup josed to be my thesis subject 
I ought to be more interested in them than the shags, which I 
certainly am not. However I plan to return to the shags 
in my old age. The terns are rather difficult from many 
points of view as I hope I make abundantly clear in my report. 
The first difficulty is to try and discover how the pair forms 
let alone anything about motivation. That has occupied me 
most of the time and I had almost given up hope until the light 
suddenly came to me at the end of 19 C 54 which fitted several 
things together but which I had succeeded in closing my eyes 
to for the best part of two seasons. But that's only the beginning 
and I can^t see that I am likely to progress far on the motivation, 
for example, of the aerial display. However my views ah the 
motivation of various postures are as they stand in the report 
though there I haven't been able to explain my reasons fully. 
I shouldn’t believe anything I say too much as my conclusions 
about motivation seem to rest on so many preliminary assumptions 
which, from what I have seen in the shag, are capable of being 
reversed after nest season’s watching. This isn’t just one s 
natural pessimism but a more serious cause of dissatisfaction. 
to use the quarters on the Fame 
Niko said that you 
only too well. We have glossed over many difficulties a 
left unsaid many things which you will be curious aboutj 
the same some points may be interesting. 
SL 
There 
I find that I see so esally just what I want to see 
