Chap. XIII. LAW OF BATTLE. 49 



baboos make the pretty little males of the amadavat 

 {Estrelcla amandava) fight together by placing three 

 small caiies in a row, with a female in the middle ; 

 after a little time the two males are turned, loose, and 

 immediately a desperate battle ensues.^^ When many 

 males congregate at the same appointed spot and fight 

 together, as in the case of grouse and various other 

 birds, they are generally attended, by the females,^ 

 which afterwards pair with the victorious combatants. 

 But in some cases the pairing precedes instead of suc- 

 ceeding the combat : tlius, according to Audubon,*^^ 

 several males of the Virginian goat-sucker {Capri- 

 mulgus Virginicmus) " court, in a highly entertaining 

 " manner, the female, and no sooner has she made her 

 ^' choice, than her approved gives chase to all intruders, 

 " and drives them beyond his dominions." Generally 

 the males try with all their power to drive away or kill 

 their rivals before they pair. It does not, however, 

 appear that the females invariably prefer the victorious 

 males. I have indeed been assured by M. W. Kowa- 

 levsky that the female capercailzie sometimes steals 

 away with a young male who has not dared to enter 

 the arena with the older cocks ; in the same manner as 

 occasionally happens \\ith the does of the red-deer in 

 Scotland. When two males contend in j^i'esence of a 

 single female, the victor, no doubt, commonly gains his 



'» Mr. Blyth, ' Laud aud Water,' 18G7, p. 212. 



-^ Riclianlson, on Tetrao umbellus, ' Fauna Bnrr Amer. : Birds,' 1831, 

 p. 343. L. Lloyd, ' Game Birds of Sweden,' 18G7, p. 22, 79, on the 

 capercailzie and black-cock, Brelim, however, asserts ^ Thierleben,' Si.c., 

 B. iv. s. 352) that in Germany the grey-hens do not generally attend 

 the Balzen of the black-cocks, but this is an excerption to the common 

 rule ; possibly the hens may lie hidden in the surrounding bushes, rs 

 is known to be the case with the grey-hens in Scandinavia, and with 

 other species in N. America. 



'^^ ' Ornithological Biography,' vol. ii. p. 275. 



VOL. II. E 



