148 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS—THE WEB OF LIFE 
succeeds in seizing the other by the head and holding him under 
water, till he is in danger of suffocating, or at least until he is. 
so much exhausted that he is unable to continue the struggle.” 
A battle-royal between two cock chaffinches is represented 
in fig. 1109. 
Tue Law or Beavuty.—lIt is familiar to all that male birds 
very often differ markedly from the females in the possession 
of more ornamental characters, and a more powerful or more 
beautiful voice. And it is significant that their charms are in 
full perfection at the time of mating. The contrast between 
the sexes is obvious on looking round any poultry-yard. Among 
ordinary fowls the striking plumage of the cock, and his scarlet 
wattles and comb, make him a handsome bird by contrast with 
the rather dowdy hen. The drake is distinctly handsomer than 
the duck. But such examples are far excelled by some of the 
allies of domesticated fowls, for in many of these the plumage 
of the male is beautiful beyond mere verbal description. Such 
in particular are the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), 
Amherst’s Pheasant (C. Amherstie), the Argus Pheasant 
(Argusianus giganteus), and the Peacock (Pavo cristatus). Gor- 
geously decorated male birds of the sort display their charms 
during courtship in a remarkable manner. We may take as an 
example the Scarlet Tragopan (Zvagopan satura), of which the 
following description by Ogilvie Grant (in Zhe Royal Natural 
History) will convey some idea of the brilliancy of the colour- 
scheme:—‘‘ The male has the top and sides of the head black, 
the neck, mantle, and under-parts orange-carmine, and the rest 
of the upper parts olive-brown, each feather being ornamented 
at the tip with a round white spot, partially or entirely margined 
with black; the outer wing-coverts being edged on each side 
with dark orange-carmine. The throat-wattle is salmon-colour 
with transverse blue bars, and the legs are pale flesh.” Brehm, 
after describing the love-dances of various birds, thus speaks (in 
From North Pole to Equator) of this particular form:—‘‘ More 
remarkable than all the rest is the behaviour of the male tragopans 
or horned pheasants of Southern Asia, magnificently decorative 
birds, distinguished by two brightly-coloured horn-like tubes of 
skin on the sides of the head, and by brilliantly-coloured extensible 
wattles. After the cock has walked round the hen several times 
without appearing to pay any attention to her, he stands still at 
