Courtship Feeding in Birds

IN my paper on courtship feeding in birds (Auk, 57: 169-178, 1940) I was mistaken in including the presentation of snow by the Ad•lie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), which was based on observations of Murray Levick. Mr. Brian Roberts recently made an intensive study of the behavior of this species when he was a member of the British Graham Land Expedition (in press). He informs me that pebbles, which form the nest lining, are presented in courtship and that when snow is presented, this is as a substitute for such pebbles, and has nothing to do with the male feeding the female. The newly published fourth volume of the 'Handbook of British Birds' (1940, ed. H. F. Witherby) includes two more records. T.A. Coward saw a male Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) eject oil into the mouth of a female, and D. Nethersole-Thompson a male Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus) bring a fish to a female at nest relief. These seem •he only records for the petrels and grebes, respectively. Also included is a second record of this habit in the Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus), which is apparently the only charadriiform bird with the habit. Mr. Nethersole-Thompson writes me of two further unpublished observations, namely, in the Falconiformes the habit occurs in Falco subbuteo not only during incubation but also prior to laying; and in the Motacillidae, courtship feeding is regular in the Meadow Pipit (•lnthus pratensis) during incubation.--DAvID LACK, Dartington Hall, Totnes, England.