296 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



perchers the Curasso-iy and Guan family show a 

 slight approximation in form and habits, being the 

 least specialized of Game-birds. The grappling 

 unscientific method of fighting is very maiiked in 

 Passerine birds, whose fights are regular "tdotji- 

 and-claw " performances. Rails, such as our 

 Moorhen and Coot, alSo grapple in this way. 



The Game-birds, especially Grouse, use their 

 wings as well as their beaks and feet in fighting, 

 but the most notable wing-fighters are the Pigeons, 

 the Duck tribe, the Plovers and Snipes, and the Pen- 

 guins. Some of these groups are regular professional 

 boxers, and may be even armed with knuckle-dusters, 

 as the Sheldrakes and that giant extinct flightless 

 Pigeon, the Solitaire (Pezophaps solitarius) of Ro- 

 driguez ; or have spurs on the pinion-joint, as in the 

 Spur-wing Geese (Plectropterus) and Spur-winged 

 Lapwings of several kinds, besides the "lily- trotting" 

 Jaganis, several of which are spur-winged. The 

 Screamers have two spurs on each wing — a large 

 one on the pinion, and a smaller one nearer the 

 tip of the wing. All spur-winged birds are spurred 

 in both sexes, and in none of them do the spurs 

 represent claws, being never at the ends of the 

 digits. The Torrent-Ducks (Merganetta) of the 

 Andes have spurs on the wings, but here it is just 

 possible that these may be grappling-irons for 

 climbing sUppery rocks, as the New Zealand 'Tor- 

 rent-Duck {Hymenolatnus malacorhynchus) is said 

 to use its wings for scrambling lip rocks, though in 

 this species they are only knobbed, not spurred. 



