Archive image from page 54 of Discovery Discovery discovery0304londuoft Year: DISCOVERY 45 I have elsewhere drawn attention to our extraor- dinan,- ignorance regarding the habits of many even of our common birds. Isolated facts are something, but systematic obser-ation and thought, systematic about what one observes, are needed to lighten the darkness. The obser\-ations here recorded were made in Spits- bergen on the Oxford University Expedition in July of last year. The photographs accompanying the article are incidental only, for, alas! it was impossible to secure photographs of any of t
Archive image from page 54 of Discovery Discovery discovery0304londuoft Year: DISCOVERY 45 I have elsewhere drawn attention to our extraor- dinan,- ignorance regarding the habits of many even of our common birds. Isolated facts are something, but systematic obser-ation and thought, systematic about what one observes, are needed to lighten the darkness. The obser\-ations here recorded were made in Spits- bergen on the Oxford University Expedition in July of last year. The photographs accompanying the article are incidental only, for, alas! it was impossible to secure photographs of any of the courtship activities, as these take place on open water away from the nest. I ha\-e therefore had to supplement them with thumb- nail sketches, which I think are better than no illustration at all. The Red-throated Diver presents a particular instance of a problem which has long exercised me. In the Divers, as in the Grebes, the Herons, the Cranes, and many other birds, both sexes are alike, and both brightly coloured ; and, as we shall see later, the bright colours are used in courtship. \Mien one sex only has special ornaments, be they of colour, structure, scent, or voice, we can fall back upon some modification of Darwin's famous theory of sexual selection. In such case, the ornaments of one sex are an assistance to successful mating ; for the members of the other sex exercise some sort of discrimination, and are not equally pleased or stimulated by all cock birds. Thus there is a growth of ornament in one sex which is detennined in the long run by the ' taste,' if we may use the word in a somewhat metaphorical sense, of the other sex. The theor\- has had to be modified in various minor respects, but its main principle holds firm: that the female needs stimulating, that stimulation is provided by the beautiful and by the strange in the male, and that therefore the mind of the female exerts a selective influence in evolution over these special male characters. What, howev
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