FEATHERED ATHLETES 85 



two females will fight until one or the other is dead, 

 or nearly so. 



"The males, and the males only, as we have now 

 proved in numberless cases, sit upon the eggs, the 

 females meanwhile larking about, calling and fight- 

 ing, without any care for their obedient mates ; and 

 lastly, the males, and the males only, I believe, tend 

 and are to be flushed along with the young brood. 

 . . . Almost throughout the higher sections of the 

 animal kingdom, you have the males fighting for 

 the females, the females caring for the young ; here 

 in one insignificant little group of tiny birds, you 

 have the ladies fighting duels to preserve . . . their 

 husbands, and the latter sitting meekly in the nur- 

 sery and tending the young." The reason for these 

 strange masculine tendencies of the females is un- 

 known to naturalists. Perhaps at some distant 

 date we will understand why the female must rule 

 among the bustard-quails. 



