By K. E. L. SIMMONS. Reprinted (1956) from Ävicultural Magazine, vol. 61, pp. 3-13, 93-102, 131-146, 181-201, 235-253, 294-316. Obtainable from A. A. Prestwich, 61 Chase Road, London, N.14. Price 5s. M R . SIMMONS'S paper is really a miniature monograph. It provides a valuable summary of our knowledge concerning the reproductive behaviour of the Great Crested Grebe, including a number of new observations of his own. He also gives an Interpretation of grebe courtship in modern terms, which was quite outside the scope of earlier observers such as Selous and myself. In line with ethologists such as Lorenz and Tinbergen, he interprets the elaborate displays of grebe courtship as, in the main, evolutionary ritualizations of the behaviour resulting from the interplay of sexual attraction, hostility (aggressiveness) and escape (fear). For this general view, he has made out a strong case. Let us take the "Discovery-Ceremony" as an example. This is a ceremony in which the two members of a pair play reciprocal röles. One dives towards the other, emerging usually beyond it in the curious "Ghostly-Penguin" vertical attitude. The second bird at once adopts the very striking " C a t Attitude", with ruff fully spread, and head retracted between the wings, which are outspread to show their striking white markings : it then turns so as to front the first bird as it emerges. The ceremony is usually ended by the pair indulging in a mutual "Head-shaking Display". The " g h o s t - d
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