Chap. XIII.J LAW OF BATTLE. 39 



bird {Gallicrex cristatus), as Mr. Blyth informs me, are 

 one-third larger than the females, and are so pugnacious 

 during the breeding-season, that they are kept by the 

 natives of Eastern Bengal for the sake of fighting. 

 Various other birds are kept in India for the same pur- 

 pose, for instance, the Bulbuls [Pycnonotus hcBmorrhous) 

 which " fight with great spirit." * 



The polygamous Ruif {^Machetes pugnax. Fig. 37) is 

 notorious for his extreme pugnacity ; and in the spring, 

 the males, which ai'e considerably larger than the females, 

 congregate day after day at a particular spot, where the 

 females propose to lay their eggs. The fowlers discover 

 these spots by the turf being trampled somewhat bare. 

 Here they fight very much like game-cocks, seizing each 

 other with their beaks and striking with their wings. The 

 great rufl^" of feathers round the neck is then erected, and 

 according to Colonel Montagu " sweeps the ground as a 

 shield to defend the more tender parts ; " and this is the 

 only instance known to me in the case of birds, of any 

 structure serving as a shield. The rufi" of feathers, how- 

 ever, from its varied and rich colors pi-obably serves in chief 

 part as an ornament. Like most pugnacious birds, they 

 seem always ready to fight, and when closely confined 

 often kill each other; but Montagu observed that their 

 pugnacity becomes greater during the sprmg, when the 

 long feathers on their necks are fully developed ; and at 

 this'period the least movement by any one bird provokes 

 a general battle.' Of the pugnacity of web-footed birds, 

 two instances will suffice : in Guiana " bloody fights occur 

 during the breeding-season between the males of the wild 

 musk-duck ( Gairina moschata) ; and where these fights 

 have occurred the river is covered for some distance with 



* Jerdon, 'Birds of India,' 1863, vol. ii. p. 96 



' Macgillivray, ' Hist. Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. 1852, pp. I'Z'T-lSl. 



