236 Life and Immortality. 



long and bloody battle ensues, which results in the death of 

 one or other of the combatants, but never in the complete 

 vanquishment of the defensive party. Instances are known 

 where males have treated their first loves with cruel indiffer- 

 ence, and subsequently deserted them, but such things could 

 not otherwise be, as will be seen when the question of 

 polygamy comes to be considered, for it is a fact, not gener- 

 ally known, that both birds are slightly promiscuous, the 

 tendency being more pronounced, however, upon the part of 

 the male. In the case where a single female is courted by 

 two males, the successful competitor for the honor of her 

 hand, so to speak, is he whose movements are marked by 

 the greatest elegance and grace. So intense does the desire 

 to please become, that the slightest disposition upon the part 

 of the lady to favor one of the rivals rather than the other, 

 leads to the most unhappy consequences, a quarrel being 

 precipitated, the contestants seeming determined to settle 

 the result by the gage of battle. 



The time of mating varies somewhat with climate and 

 with the conditions of the season. In the warm, sunny South 

 it occurs late in March or early in April. But further North, 

 where winter still lingers with frosty coldness, the latter 

 month is well nigh verging to its close, or gliding into the 

 succeeding, before this essential business is thought of. 

 When, however, it does happen, the female, with but little 

 waste of time, withdraws from the society of her partner, 

 and repairs to a secluded spot in the midst of a woods, where, 

 usually beneath a clump of evergreen, or a pile of brush, or 

 perhaps a fallen log or projecting rock, she hastily scratches 

 a few dry leaves together for a nest. There she deposits, 

 one by one, on as many consecutive days, her complement 

 of six to twelve eggs, and immediately enters upon the 

 duties of incubation. In this she is alone, the male lending 

 no assistance, not even indirectly by attending to her demands 

 for food. While she is thus occupied he seeks the company 

 of others of his sex, with whom he remains until the young 



