Cambridge, Mass,' 
l Inde ed I doubt- -if - avar baf ore-^ 4mv-e---s»an -- : bi rds~~ trf— any - k i a ^d—swim—&o 
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Swiftly, The combined movements of such a group were often too sudden 
and bewildering to be easily followed or interpreted, ^«rfc the general 
plan of action seemed to consist of a sort of dress parade so ordered 
as to give the rival drakes an opportunity to display their respective 
claims of plumage and deportment to the best advantage and in direct 
yet not unfriendly competition with one another. Their evolutions were 
for the most part ga gmiagly regulated by established system or custom 
and some of them were strikingly beautiful. Thus eight or nine drakes , 
strung out in single file but so close together that the bill of every 
one was almost at the tail of the next would swim past a female at top 
. i 
speed and then turn instantly each bird on its own axis as if at some 
/ / 
given signal, before starting back in reverse order^that is with the hirdL 
which had been the last now leading, I saw this done a dozen times or 
more the distance traversed in a straight line on the different occa¬ 
sions varying from ten to fifty yards. When a number of drakes started 
dfter a female that was swimming away from them they usually overtook 
her quickly and passed her in the manner whi -e h ^ I have just described 
but sometimes the chase would continue for one or two hundred yards. 
' 
When overtaken she usually stopped and seemed to watch the behaviour of 
HO 
