BIRDS 



119 



5*6 inches, of the female 6*7 inches. The chief difference 

 between the sexes in marking is that in the male the chin 

 and throat are white, in the female black. The upper parts 

 of the body are rufous or brown in both sexes, but in the 

 female this is mottled with black. 



Mr. A. G. Hume, as quoted by Ogilvie Grant, says of this 

 species that the females only call, the females only fight. In 

 this species no male will ever come to a cage baited with a 

 male, whereas every female within hearing rushes to a cage 

 in which a female is confined, and if allowed to meet during 

 the breeding season any two females will fight until one or 

 other is dead, or nearly so. The males, and the males only, 

 sit upon the eggs, the females meanwhile calling and fighting 

 without any care for their obedient mates. The males, and 

 the males only, tend the young brood. Darwin mentions 

 that the females and not the males of this species are kept 

 by the natives of India for fighting, like game-cocks. 



It is not difficult to form an idea of the way in which such 

 exceptional habits could have arisen. In the ancestors of 

 these birds probably a male and female paired for breeding, 

 as in several other species of Gallinacei. For some reason 

 or other the females may have become more numerous than 

 the males, in which case unmated females would naturally 

 endeavour to allure any male they came across from his 

 fidelity to his mate and nest. His mate would then give 

 battle to the intruder, and if such battles became frequent 

 the females would in time gradually abandon the cares of 

 incubation and give themselves up entirely to courtship and 

 warfare, while the males took upon themselves the task of in- 

 cubation. An excess of females has in this case led to a con- 

 dition which is the opposite of that more commonly existing 

 among the Gallinacei. When the male was the less devoted 

 of the pair to family cares the unmated female who approached 

 him was welcomed and added to his seraglio, while the first 



