LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 275 



tail outspread, and much grumbling and hissing, make use of their 

 bills with very considerable effect. Sandpipers and other shore- 

 birds, particularly the fighting ruffs, which fight about everything, 

 about a mate or about a fly, about sun and light, or about their 

 standing-ground, run against each other with bills like poised 

 lances, and receive the thrusts among their breast-feathers, which 

 in the case of the ruffs are developed into what serves as a shield. 

 Coots rush at each other on an unsteady surface of water-plants, 

 and strike each other with their legs. Swans, geese, and ducks chase 

 each other till one of the combatants succeeds in seizing the other 

 by the head and holding him under water, till he is in danger of 

 suffocating, or at least until he is so much exhausted that he is 

 unable to continue the struggle. Swans, like spur-winged birds, 

 seem also to use the hard, sharp, thorn-like horny quills at the 

 angle of the wing to give effective strokes. 



As long as the female has not decided for either of the combat- 

 ants, she takes no part in such struggles, does not appear even to 

 be interested, though she must observe them closely, as she usually 

 declares for the winner, or at least accepts his suit. How her 

 decision or declaration is actually brought about I cannot say, I 

 cannot even guess. While the battles described are in progress 

 she makes her choice, and from thenceforward she gives herself 

 unreservedly to the favoured male, follows him wherever he goes, 

 accepts his demonstrations of affection with obvious pleasure, and 

 returns his caresses with the most self -forgetting tenderness. She 

 calls longingly after him, greets him joyously, and submits unresist- 

 ingly to his desires and fondlings. Parrot pairs sit with their 

 bodies closely pressed together, though hundreds may have settled 

 on the same tree; the most complete unison is observable in all their 

 doings; they are as if guided by one will. Does the husband take 

 food, the wife takes it too; does he seek a new perch, she follows 

 him; does he utter a cry, she joins her voice to his. Caressingly 

 they nestle in each other's plumage, and the passive female willingly 

 offers head and neck to the eager male, thus to receive proofs of his 

 tenderness. Every other female bird receives the caresses of her mate 

 with similar, if somewhat less obvious devotion. She knows neither 



