LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 279 



and self-reliant and no longer need their help. But the red-legged 

 partridges, and probably our partridges also, during the pairing- 

 time, put in an appearance wherever another cock announces him- 

 self in order to fight a round with him, and they are often allured 

 and killed by the Spaniards, with the help of tame cocks of their 

 own species. Later, however, when brooding has begun and they 

 have no longer any inclination to fight, they respond to the call of 

 the hens, if possible, more readily than before. 



But, as has been said, such cases form exceptions to the rule, and 

 cannot be compared in any way with what occurs among poly- 

 gamous birds. Many have tried in vain to explain the polygamy of 

 cowbirds, cuckoos, pheasants, woodcocks, turkeys, quails, peacocks, 

 and ruffs, but as yet no satisfactory explanation has been offered. 

 To say that the cuckoo and its nearest relations do not brood nor 

 live in wedlock and rear their own offspring because they must 

 always be ready to direct their flight towards a caterpillar horde, 

 wherever that may appear, is to talk at large, not to explain for 

 the cowbirds, too, intrust their brood to the care of foster-parents; 

 and with regard to the supposition that polygamy, occurring among 

 a few exceptionally persecuted species of fowl, is a provision of 

 Nature for securing to these a numerous progeny, it is difficult to 

 see why that end might not have been attained in the same way as 

 among other fowls, which, though monogamous, are not less prolific. 64 



While employing the expression polygamy, I am quite aware 

 that it is usual to speak of plurality of wives among birds. Such a 

 state is unknown to me, and its existence, to my knowledge, is not 

 corroborated by any observations of indisputable accuracy. For 

 the passion is mutual, and the longing of the females is as bound- 

 less as that of the males. The female cuckoo mates with one male 

 to-day and another to-morrow, may indeed bestow her affections on 

 several in the course of an hour, and the hen yields herself to one 

 cock as readily as to another. It is simply out of the question to 

 talk of mating among them at all. The males only concern them- 

 selves temporarily about the females, and the females about the 

 males; each sex goes its own way, even separating entirely from 

 the other, and taking no interest in its lot beyond the limits of the 



