ttxia forking to be correlated with a chnge from the scavenging 
habits on the ground of gulls to this quite different kind 
of hunting for fish or water-insects. Does this seem 
reasonable to you ? On these sorts of grounds I feel that 
the terns could be poly phyle tic (as you suggests) whether 
in fact they are or not. 
By the way I don't think I have mentioned about the 
work that the two new fellows are to do at Ravenglass on 
the B-h G-. One, as I have said, hopes to try and find out 
more about the causation and function of the various displays 
using models and mirrors, thaxHthKK and also to try and 
find out more about the variations in the normal form of 
the displays. The other man, a New Zealander, Colin Beer, 
will study parental behaviour extending Rita's work on 
egg- acceptance at beginning and end of the season, brooding 
behaviour, chick acceptance, parental behaviour and nest- 
building before and after the eggs are laid. Uli hopes 
to get up for a few weeks in the chick season to go on with 
the pecking response stuff. 
^ae wrote us that she had seen you briefly when she 
passed through the East and that you didn't get round to 
talking ship until it was muph too late to talk seriously 
about anything. She doesn t seem to be having much fun at 
La Jolla and can't get her fish nor do the facilities seem 
good (she says 10 timea^Chan at Oxford I). But you probably 
know this already. A 
David Snow id off in a few days to_Trinidad. Still 
unmarried. A useful acquisition here is J ohn Godfrey, 
Aubrey's predecessor at Edinburgh, who is now living in a 
house-boat here and working at Harwell. He comes to Friday 
evenings and is a bright spark. No more chat now. 
Yours 
TM € 
