Chap. XIII.] LAW OF BATTLE. 39 



bird {Galllcrex cristatus), as Mr. Blyth informs me, are 

 one-third larger than the females, and are so pugnacious 

 during the breeding-season, that they are kept by the 

 natives of Eastern Bengal for the sake of fighting. 

 Various other birds are kept in India for the same pur- 

 pose, for instance, the Bulbuls {Pycnonotus hazmorrhous) 

 which " fight with great spirit." 6 



The polygamous Ruff [Machetes pugnax, Fig. 37) is 

 notorious for his extreme pugnacity ; and in the spring, 

 the males, which are considerably larger than the females, 

 congregate day after day at a particular spot, where the 

 females propose to lay their eggs. The fowlers discover 

 these spots by the turf being trampled somewhat bare. 

 Here they fight very much like game-cocks, seizing each 

 other with their beaks and "striking with their wings. The 

 great ruff of feathers round the neck is then erected, and 

 according to Colonel Montagu a sweeps the ground as a 

 shield to defend the more tender parts ; " and this is the 

 only instance known to me in the case of birds, of any 

 structure serving as a shield. The ruff of feathers, how- 

 ever, from its varied and rich colors probably serves in chief 

 part as an ornament. Like most pugnacious birds, they 

 seem always ready to fight, and when closely confined 

 often kill each other ; but Montagu observed that their 

 pugnacity becomes greater during the spring, when the 

 long feathers on their necks are fully developed ; and at 

 this period the least movement by any one bird provokes 

 a general battle. 7 Of the pugnacity of web-footed birds, 

 two instances will suffice : in Guiana " bloody fights occur 

 during the breeding-season between tlie males of the wild 

 musk-duck ( Cairlna moschata) ; and where these fights 

 have occurred the river is covered for some distance with 



6 Jerdon, 'Birds of India,' 1863, vol. ii. p. 96 



1 Macgillivray, 'Hist. Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. 1852, pp. 177-181. 



