Love Among the Birds 



them, even under the severe provocation of the 

 attacks of a feather-eater. 



Most of the pheasant family, to which he 

 belongs, are less admirable in character ; they 

 fight hard for their mates with each other, but 

 they are rough wooers, and if their display does 

 not meet with what they consider proper atten- 

 tion, the coy fair one is likely to be scalped, if not 

 murdered outright. They certainly take enough 

 trouble to make themselves admirable in the eyes 

 of their somewhat irritating companions, the 

 prevailing idea among them being to endeavour 

 to show both sides at once by slanting their 

 bodies over and expanding their tails sideways. 

 To this the common pheasant adds the expansion 

 of his scarlet velvet mask, and the exhibition of 

 his horn-like ear-tufts, while the gold pheasant 

 spreads his jet-and-amber cape into a gorgeous 

 fan, turning it from side to side, according as the 

 demure little coquette he is pursuing dodges him. 

 If he can get her still for a moment, out go fan 

 and tail at once, with a long-drawn hiss, as if he 

 said: " Sh — sh ! just stop and look at this!" 

 But he is only a mass of gilded vanity after all, 

 so taken up with himself that he does not much 

 care to whom he shows off. A few years ago 

 I used to watch full-plumaged gold pheasants in 

 the Canal Bank Aviary at the Zoo which were 



showing off, in spite of snow and frost, to each 



27 



