LAW OF BATTLE. 359 



with their rivals, namely spurs, which can be used with fearful 

 effect. It has been recorded by a trustworthy writer" that in 

 Derbyshire a kite struck at a game-hen accompanied by her chick- 

 ens, when the cock rushed to the rescue, and drove his spur 

 right through the eye and skull of the aggressor. The spur was 

 with difficulty drawn from the skull, and as the kite though dead 

 retained his grasp, ihe two birds were firmly locked together; but 

 the cock when disentangled was very little injured. The invin- 

 cible courage of the game-cock is notorious: a gentleman who 

 long ago witnessed the brutal scene, told me that a bird had both 

 its legs broken by some accident in the cockpit, and the owner laid 

 a wager that if the legs could be spliced so that the bird could 

 stand upright, he would continue fighting. This was effected on 

 the spot, and the bird fought with undaunted courage until he re- 

 ceived his death-stroke. In Ceylon a closely allied, wild species, 

 the Gallus Stanley!, is known to fight desperately "in defense of 

 "his seraglio," so that one of the combatants is frequently found 

 dead.'^ An Indian partridge (Ortygornis gularis,) the male of 

 which is furnished with strong and sharp spurs, is so quarrelsome, 

 "that the scars of former fights disfigure the breast of almost 

 "every bird you kill."" 



The males of almost all gallinaceous birds, even those which are 

 not furnished with spurs, engage during the breeding-season in 

 fierce conflicts. The Capercailzie and Black-cock (Tetrao urogallus 

 and T. tetrix), which are both polygamists, have regular ap- 

 pointed places, where during many weeks they congregate In 

 numbers to fight together and to display their charms before the 

 females. Dr. W. Kovalevsky informs me that in Russia he has 

 seen the snow all bloody on the arenas where the capercailzie 

 have fought; and the black-cocks "make the feathers fly in every 

 "direction," when several "engage in a battle royal." The elder 

 Brehm gives a curious account of the Balz, as the love-dances and 

 love-songs of the Black-cock are called in Germany. The bird 

 utters almost continuously the strangest noises: "he holds his 

 "tail up and spreads it out like a fan, he lifts up his head and neck 

 "with all the feathers erect, and stretches his wings from the 

 "body. Then he takes a few jumps in different directions, some- 

 "times in a circle, and presses the under part of his beak so hard 

 "against the ground that the chin feathers are rubbed off. Dur- 

 "ing these movements he beats his wings and turns round and 

 "round. The more ardent he grows the more lively he becomes, 

 "until at last the bird appears like a frantic creature." At such 

 times the black-cocks are so absorbed that they become almost 



"Mr. Hewitt, in the 'Poultry Booli; by Teg-etmeier,' 3866, p. 137. 

 >2 Layard, 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. xiv. 1854, p. 63. 

 " Jerdon, 'Birds of India,' vol. iii. p. 574. 



