COURTSHIP AND MATING OF BIRDS 149 



a particular spot, and begins to bow. More and more quickly 

 the courtesies follow each other, the horns meantime swelling and 

 tossing, the wattles dilating and collapsing again, till all are 

 literally flying about the head of the love-crazed bird. Now he 

 unfolds and spreads his wings, rounds and droops his tail, sinks 

 down with bent feet, and, spitting and hissing, lets his wings 

 sweep along the ground. Suddenly every movement ceases. 

 Bent low, his plumage ruffled, his wings and tail pressed against 

 the ground, his eyes closed, his breathing audible, he remains 

 for a while in motionless ecstasy. His fully unfolded decorations 

 gleam with dazzling brightness. Abruptly he rises again, spits 

 and hisses, trembles, smooths his feathers, scratches, throws up 

 his tail, flaps his wings, jerks himself up to his full height, rushes 

 upon the female, and, suddenly checking his wild career, appears 

 before her in Olympic majesty, stands still for a moment, trembles, 

 twitches, hisses, and all at once lets all his glory vanish, smooths 

 his feathers, draws in his horns and wattles, and goes about his 

 business as if nothing had happened." 



The combination of " spitting and hissing" with " Olympic 

 majesty" in the tragopan strikes one as somewhat lacking in 

 dramatic fitness, from the human stand-point, but it serves as a 

 reminder that the most gorgeously decorated male birds are not 

 remarkable for beautiful voices. The unpleasant scream of the 

 Peacock is no doubt familiar to all. On the other hand, the 

 most gifted songsters are often modestly attired, and it is further 

 to be noted that birds of small size are particularly notable in 

 the matter of vocal attainments. In some cases, at any rate, 

 love-songs would appear to prove more attractive to the female 

 than elaborate colour-displays or amorous antics. On this point 

 Darwin makes the following remarks (in The Descent of Man): 

 " Naturalists are much divided with respect to the object of the 

 singing of birds. Few more careful observers ever lived than 

 Montagu, and he maintained that the ' males of song-birds and 

 of many others do not in general search for the female, but, on 

 the contrary, their business in the spring is to perch on some 

 conspicuous spot, breathing out their full and amorous notes, 

 which, by instinct, the female knows, and repairs to the spot to 

 choose her mate '. Mr. Jenner Weir informs me that this is 

 certainly the case with the nightingale. Bechstein, who kept 

 birds during his whole life, asserts ' that the female canary 



