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 Zhe 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 
