BIRDS. 413 



body. Then he takes a few jumps in different direc- 

 tions, sometimes in a circle, and presses the under part 

 of his beak so hard against the ground that the 

 chin feathers are rubbed off. During these move- 

 ments he beats his wings and turns round and 

 round. The more ardent he grows the more lively he 

 becomes, until at last the bird appears like a frantic creat- 

 ure." At such times the black-cocks are so absorbed that 

 they become almost blind and deaf, but less so than the 

 capercailzie; hence bird after bird may be shot on the same 

 spot, or even caught by the 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 successive years.* 



The peacock with his long train appears more like a 

 dandy than a warrior, but he sometimes engages in fierce 

 contests; the Rev. W. Darwin Fox informs me that at some 

 little distance from Chester two peacocks became so excited 

 while fighting that they flew over the whole city, still 

 engaged, until they alighted on the top of St. John's tower. 



The spur, in those gallinaceous birds which are thus pro- 

 vided, is generally single; but Polyplectron (see fig. 51) 

 has two or more on each leg; and one of the blood-pheas- 

 ants (Ithaginis ci'uentus) has been seen with five spurs. 

 The spurs are generally confined to the male, being repre- 

 sented by mere knobs or rudiments in the female; but the 

 females of the Java peacock (Favo muticus) and, as I am 

 informed by Mr. Blyth, of the small fire-backed pheasant 

 {Euplocamus erytliroptlialmus) possess spurs. In Galloper- 

 dix it is usual for the males to have two spurs, and for the 

 females to have only one on each leg.f Hence spurs may 

 be considered as a masculine structure, which has been 

 occasionally more or less transferred to the females. Like 

 most other secondary sexual characters, the spurs are highly 

 variable, both in number and development, in the same 

 species. 



Various birds have spurs on their wings. But the Egyp- 



*Brehm, " Illust. Thierleben," 1867, B. iv, s. 351. Some of the 

 foregoing statements are taken from L. Lloyd, "The Game Birds of 

 Sweden," etc., 1867, p. 79. 



f Jerdon, " Birds of India," on Ithaginis, vol. iii, p. 523; on Gallo- 

 perdix, p. 541. 



