®n some day a, Win t I*' the birds do the rest of the time ? 
Certainly they nus t spend much of it fishing which cannot bo 
done in the territory. They also tend to alternate tine on their 
territory with visits to the flocks which sit about at the water’s 
edge close to the colony* The birds at these preening places 
a -jen'd their time resting, sleeping and preening, all of which 
they mn and do on the! o' territories. They mtm i show a slight 
teVtfmhoy to dtsblay there too but such die lay inis birds seen 
to m already paired. It is therefore difficult to know how 
and where a particular individual la spending his U»e and 
it becomes iroaaibl© t® describe all hie behaviour towards potent H» 
mates , After' the lias on between e pair 1® just beginning the 
two may fly off together and stay away for hours. This can 
be perfectly maddening. Although the bird® ©ay return again 
sin to one (and some time S bo re) snail areas, I nave as yet 
said nothing about the defence of these areas. Some males 
defend their areas fairly thoroughly, driving off trespassing 
■sales and perhaps even potential Bates. But the majority seem 
to behave to most intruders as if they were fee ales and to try 
and court them. This may change into attack if the other birs 
is hostile but It generally has the same end result as threat 
and causes the intruders to fly up. 
Th© postures with which a male responds to the visit of 
a female have been frequently described by earlier observers. 
There are two of them the Bent and the Stretch* Che bent is shown 
in Fig. I and le characterised by the pointing down, of the beak, 
the stretching forward of the neck, the drooping or the carpal 
joints and the raiding of the tail. It is accompanied by a specia 
©all. The stretch. Fig. 4, has the same drooping l wl • and 
raising of the tail, but less strongly, while the neck and 
bill stretch \ ds at an angle varying * horizontal to 
the vertical* These brie f descriptions will suffice for 
th© moment. The alighting bird usually assumes the stretch 
ae it lands, while the male on the ground makes first the bent. 
He may then adopt the stretch also or he say go and scrape or 
first one and then the other. In the sera ping the breast la 
lowered to the ground and the feet sototoh backwards to throw 
out sand* In this way the use of breast and foot hollow out 
a sera pe in the sand similar to the one in which the eggs &rs 
later laid. The postures of the as I© and resale which usually 
ore cedes soraol m have boon called a greeting ceremony and I 
have used this useful nans#. Burin? the scraping which follows 
greeting the female tends to be attract;'- to the spot Where the 
male 1® performing and may even perform there herself. This coj 
be Important in acquainting the female with the male s territory 
and the most Important focus in It, the nesting scrape. 
Hot only does the sale adopt the bent posture as the^ 
female alights taut he adopts it as a reaction to flying birds 
end it of i seems to attract females* The landing *of the female 
then causes the posture to be ©ore exaggerated. 
