±2 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part II. 



game-hen accompanied by her chickens, when the cock 

 rushed to the rescue and drove his spur right through the 

 eye and skull of the aggressor. The spur was with diffi- 

 culty drawn from the skull, and as the kite though dead 

 retained his grasp, the two birds were firmly locked to- 

 gether ; but the cock when disentangled was very little 

 injured. The invincible courage of the game-cock is noto- 

 rious :. a gentleman who long ago witnessed the following 

 brutal scene, told me that a bird had both its legs broken 

 by some accident in the cockpit, and the owner laid a 

 wager that if the legs could be spliced so that the bird 

 could stand upright, he would continue fighting. This 

 was effected on the spot, and the bird fought with un- 

 daunted courage until he received his death-stroke. In 

 Ceylon a closely-allied and wild species, the Gallus Stan- 

 ley^ is known to fight desperately "in defence of his 

 seraglio," so that one of the combatants is frequently 

 found dead. 12 An Indian partridge {Ortygornis gularis), 

 the male of which is furnished with strong and sharp 

 spurs, is so quarrelsome, " that the scars of former fights 

 disfigure the breast of almost every bird you kill." 13 



The males of almost all gallinaceous birds, even those 

 which are not furnished with spurs, engage during the 

 breeding-season in fierce conflicts. The Capercailzie and 

 Blackcock (Tetrao urogallus and T. tetrix), which are 

 both polygamists, have regular appointed places, where 

 during many weeks they congregate in numbers to fight 

 together and to display their charms before the females. 

 M. W. Kowalevsky informs me that in Russia he has seen 

 the snow all bloody on the arenas where the Capercailzie 

 have fought ; and the Blackcocks " make the feathers fly 

 in every direction," when several "engage in a battle 

 royal." The elder Brehm gives a curious account of the 



12 Layard, 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. xiv. 1854, *p. 63 



13 Jerdon, ' Birds of India,' vol. iii. p. 574. 



