300 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



cited as defensive structures, but this view is, I 

 am sure, quite mistaken ; the fights of Ruffs are 

 most feeble affairs, the birds never really hurting 

 each other even though fighting, as they often do, 

 when in undress ; their beaks are blunt and weak, 

 they do not use their feet, and all they can do is 

 to slap with their wings, the blows of which do 

 no serious harm ; while as to the facial warts, some 

 specimens never develop them at all. 



A much better defence is " bluffing " by expan- 

 sion of the wings or feathers, as is done by Owls, 

 Bitterns, Painted Snipe (Rhynchaa) and other 

 birds ; this often suffices to keep the enemy from 

 hostilities altogether, and may be the original object 

 of the so-called sexual display. The Swan and the 

 Mandarin Drake certainly believe in displaying to 

 bluff an enemy, and so do the Peacock and Turkey- 

 cock, while the Ostrich often displays before com- 

 mencing hostilities in fact, the habit is very 

 general among birds, and may be compared with 

 the hair- bristling of mammals. 



I have seen some very amusing instances of this, 

 as when a Canadian and a Greylag Gander once 

 defied each other by display before me in Regent's 

 Park, with out-stretched necks and lowered and out- 

 spread tails ; ultimately the Canadian lay down as 

 if daring his enemy to shift him, whereupon the 

 said enemy sheered off and declined actual hos- 

 tilities. I have also seen in the Calcutta Zoo a 

 Crane try to bluff a Pelican by opening its bill at 

 it, only to flee in horror when the Pelican returned 



