Jan., 1911 
COURTSHIP OF TIIR AAIRRTCAX GOI J)P:N-F:vE 
2.S 
ually sank themselves deeper in the water than did the drakes. The latter, whether 
adult or immature, floated very lightly, showing the greater part of their bodies 
above the surface. Those in full nuptial plumage were handsome birds whose 
strongly contrasting black and white coloring made them conspicuous under all 
conditions and at long distances. When they were near at hand I could see the 
greenish iridescence on their big, fluffy heads glint and shimmer in the sunlight. 
Evidently they were quite conscious of their personal attractiveness, and devoted 
themselves to bringing it to the attention of the females by a variety of odd and 
interesting motions some of which were calculated to display it to the best advan- 
tage. They kept calling, also, uttering a queer, strident note wholly new to me. 
While thus engaged they were incessantly swimming to and fro, shifting from one 
group of birds to another and ever seeking or following the females with tireless 
persistence, but without haste and wnth a decorous restraint of manner most unus- 
ual in courting birds and very interesting to behold. By no means all the fully 
mature drakes took part in these proceedings. There were at least five or six of 
them who remained apart from the others, either in solitary state or each in com- 
pany with a female apparently its mate, and who busied themselves during the 
entire time I had them under observation in diving for food or floating idly on the 
glassy surface, preening their feathers every now and then. The others, while 
actively employed in “shownng off”, in the presence of the females, indulged, as I 
hav'e said, in a variety of movements, gesticulations and postures, all more or less 
grotesque and probably most of them peculiar to the season of love-making if not 
also characteristic of the ceremonial of Whistler courtshi]). I saw them all re- 
peated many times under conditions very favorable for close and accurate observa- 
tion. For convenience of treatment in describing them I shall first designate them 
by the following terms which, if somewhat fanciful, are, I trust, at least helpfully 
suggestive: 
GK.STlCri,.\TK)NS 
1. The )iod — made with the head. 
2. The kick — made upward with one or both (?) feet. 
3. The fo7'ivard thrust — of the head and neck. 
4. The iipzvard thrust — of the head and neck. 
5. The back thrust — of the head and neck. 
FIXED AND PECUI.IAK ATTITUDES 
1. The crouch! Ji^' pose. 
2. 'The zvounded duck pose. 
3. 'The bozv-sprit pose. 
4. 'The mast-head pose. 
5. 7'he folded duck-sk/Ji pose. 
To these should be added, for purposes of comparison, 
6. The normal pose — i.e., the position ordinarily taken by birds of both sexes 
when floating or swimming about. 
The love note to which I have alluded may be known as the bleat . I do not 
like this term, for it is not accurately suggestive of the sound; but it comes 
nearer being so than anything else I can think of — hence its adoption. After 
hearing it hundreds of times this morning I should describe it as a short, flat, 
vibrant paaap not unlike that of the .Woodcock but a tfifle more prolonged and 
also less harsh and incisive. It reminded me somewhat of the blast of a penny 
trumpet, less forcibly of the wheezy quack of a drake Black Duck. It did not 
