Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/205

Rh ately after he has done so, ascends the nest, and lies along it in the usual manner. The male ascends as before, and it would seem that this time the pairing is accomplished. I, however, only judge so by the subsequent behaviour of the two birds, which has that satisfied appearance as of something successfully accomplished, which all who have watched birds will know. The time occupied was extremely short, and one would hardly have thought from the position of the two birds that actual pairing had been possible.

It will thus be seen, that before each of these pairings or attempts to pair, the male Grebe assumed the posture proper to the female on such occasions, and the first time actually went on to the nest in order to do so, that being, it would seem, the chosen spot for the performance of the nuptial rite. Except for this, and to take his share in incubation, I have not seen the male bird (nor, for that matter, the female either) ascend the nest; neither would one expect him to do so, as the birds do not ascend to build or shape it, and also he makes himself a special platform. I therefore attribute his doing so, as also the concomitant actions, to a peculiar, and, as we would call it, perverted sexual activity, in which, moreover, the female shared. I should say that during the last pairing the cries of the birds—for they were evidently uttered by both of them—were louder and more pronounced than before, and also of two kinds. The first and loudest note uttered was sharp and shrill in quality, approaching to a kind of screaming. The other I cannot now distinctly recall.

Now, with regard to the curious apparent change of sex in these two Grebes, I here recall what I have observed in the case of a pair of dovecot Pigeons, viz. that, immediately after the ordinary pairing of the birds, the male would crouch to the female, who then performed, apparently, the office of the male; so that anyone seeing the two, and unacquainted with such possibilities, would have sworn absolutely that the female bird was the male, and vice versâ. Should this appear incredible to some, I can only say that I saw it take place right in front of me, not once merely, but several times, and at no more than a step or two's distance—in fact, under such circumstances as eliminated the possibility of mal-observation.