COURTSHIP. 119 



hand. After performing these antics the males 

 begin to fight, and the same black-cock, in order 

 to prove his strength over several antagonists, 

 will visit in the course of one morning several 

 balz places, which remain the same during suc- 

 cessive years." 



Many of the game-birds have the legs armed 

 with powerful spurs. These are capable of in- 

 flicting terrible damage ; as witness the records 

 of the old days of cock-fighting. In these cases, 

 however, their power as weapons of offence was 

 increased by fastening silver sheaths on to the 

 natural spurs. The blood-pheasants are the most 

 heavily armed, having from four to five pairs of 

 spurs on each leg. So pugnacious is the dis- 

 position of this group of birds, that they fight 

 not only for the possession of the females, but 

 on the slightest provocation, and frequently on 

 none at all. Thus, Mr Frederic Wilson writes 

 of the kalij -pheasant that "it is very pugnacious, 

 and the males have frequent battles. On one 

 occasion I had shot a male, which lay flutter- 

 ing on the ground in its death struggles, when 

 another rushed out of the jungle and attacked 

 it with the greatest fury. . . ." 



Some birds there are which have the spurs 

 upon the wings instead of the legs. Many of the 

 plovers, Hoplopterus, the Egyptian spur-winged 

 plover for instance, has large and very sharp 

 spurs. In Egypt these birds have been seen to 

 fight, after the manner of our common English 

 peewit, by turning suddenly in the air and 

 striking with the wings. In the case of the 

 Egyptian bird the result is often fatal. With 



