234 HISTORY OF THE 



at the same time a succession of puffs from the lungs, and 

 stopping now and then to listen and to look. But whether 

 they spy the female or not, they continue to puff and strut, 

 moving with as much celerity as their ideas of ceremony seem 

 to admit. While thus occupied the males often encounter 

 each other, in which case desperate battles take place, ending 

 in bloodshed, and often in the loss of many lives, the weaker 

 falling under the repeated blows inflicted upon their heads by 

 the stronger. 



"I have been much diverted, while watching two males in 

 fierce conflict, by seeing them move alternately backwards and 

 forwards, as either had obtained a better hold, their wings droop- 

 ing, their tails partly raised, their body feathers ruffled, and their 

 heads covered with blood. If, as they thus struggle and gasp 

 for breath, one of them should lose his hold, his chance is over, 

 for the other, still holding fast, hits him violently with spurs and 

 wings, and in a few minutes brings him to the ground. The 

 moment he is dead, the conqueror treads him under foot, but, 

 what is strange, not with hatred, but with all the motions he 

 employs in caressing the female. 



"When the male has discovered and made up to the female 

 (whether such combat has previously taken place or not), if she 

 be more than one year old she also struts and gobbles, turns 

 round him as he continues strutting, suddenly opens her wings, 

 throws herself towards him, as if to put a stop to his idle delays, 

 lays herself down, and receives his dilatory caresses. If the 

 cock meets a young hen, he alters his mode of procedure. He 

 struts in a different manner, less pompously and more energet- 

 ically, moves with rapidity, sometimes rises from the ground, 

 taking a short flight around the hen, as in the manner of some 

 Pigeons, the Eed-breasted Thrush and many other birds, and on 

 alighting runs with all his might, at the same time rubbing his 

 tail and wings along the ground, for the space of perhaps ten 

 yards. He then draws near the timorous female, allays her 

 fears by purring, and, when she at length assents, caresses her. 



" When a male and female have thus come together, I believe 

 the connection continues for that season, although the former 



