COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS 115 



the frills begins again. The amorous instincts, it is 



important to notice, are awakened earlier in the males, 



so that by the time the females have attained to a like 



condition the least mettlesome males have been driven 



off. What follows is not the selection by the females of 



the finest performers so much as a process of sorting 



out, whereby the females discover and cleave to those 



males which are readiest for mating. This display 



succeeds in revealing both the most mettlesome males 



and the most amorous females, who, however, would 



seem to require great persistence and much demonstration 



on the part of the males before they can be finally aroused 



to the pitch necessary for pairing. Again and again 



a male may be seen to approach an apparently very 



unconcerned female, and then to crouch down before 



her with his beak pressed to the ground and his frill and 



" ears " set off to their fullest. For some seconds he 



will remain lost in apparent contemplation, then with 



a dazed, far-off, expression he will look up, to find, as often 



as not, that she is still apparently feeding, quite unmoved 



by his protestations ; or that she has even flown off and 



left him. Pursuit speedily follows, and the performance 



is repeated until at last she too catches the flame of 



passion and permits, or rather invites, the final act of 



sexual congress. v» | 



Though these birds on occasion will fight, and savagely, 



they cannot inflict serious damage on one another by 



reason of the relative feebleness of their beaks and legs, 



which are but ill-adapted for violent measures. Inasmuch 



as the Ruff is a polygamous species, these bloodless 



battles have a peculiar interest. They show that the 



preponderance of females, which polygamy implies, is 



not, as is commonly supposed to be the case, due to a 



8« 



