MATING DANCES 



195 



is awarded leadership and wins his mates. The cock 

 birds of our fowls and pheasants choose -remote 

 places in the jungle for their contests. The ruffs 

 assemble on the Dutch marshes each spring to perform 

 complex dances and flights before their rivals, and in 



FIG. 33. The Ruff in mating plumage. 

 (From a specimen in the Manchester Museum.") 



view of the reeves or hen birds. Only after the 

 fullest display of their plumage, powers of flight and 

 of song is the choice made among them. Indeed, 

 we may say that where the cock bird differs from the 

 hen in plumage, such contrast is an indication of the 



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