ii6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



acter, while the larger females are quarrelsome and 

 non-incubators, he is larger and fiercer than the 

 hens, and fights fiercely to win them from rival 

 males, whereupon the ladies pool their eggs in the 

 nest he scratches out, and leave all the rest of the 

 work to him. A cock Rhea might have been seen 

 in the London Zoo at the time of writing this, 

 proudly escorting a brood of young, whose mother 

 cared so little for them that she had to be driven away 

 from the special food provided for their delecta- 

 tion, which the father hardly touched ; this eating 

 of the young birds' food by the indifferent mother 

 being apparently the usual thing in such species. 



Generally, of course, if there is an indifferent 

 parent it is the male especially if decorated; Cocks 

 and Drakes, for instance, do not aid their mates in 

 rearing the family, but the habit is not constant in 

 groups. Male Partridges and Ganders protect the 

 young, and the former even brood them ; male 

 Swans also sedulously guard their cygnets, as male 

 Sheldrakes do their ducklings. 



In many birds there is a very fair division of 

 labour, as with Pigeons, Sand-Grouse, and the 

 true Ostrich, the cock doing half the work if not 

 even more. Among the domestic Pigeons and 

 Doves, for instance, it will be noticed that while 

 both feed the young indiscriminately, the sitting 

 is very evenly divided, the cock sitting from about 

 ten in the morning till about five in the evening, 

 while the hen takes the rest of the time, and has 

 perhaps the best of the bargain, as she would 



