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 dieir 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 (Rhynchdea) 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 



