236 Life and Immortatty. 
long and bloody battle ensues, which results in the death of 
one or other of the combatants, but never in the complete 
vanquishment of the defensive party. Instances are known 
where males have treated their first loves with cruel indiffer- 
ence, and subsequently deserted them, but such things could 
not otherwise be, as will be seen when the question of 
polygamy comes to be considered, for it is a fact, not gener- 
ally known, that both birds are slightly promiscuous, the 
tendency being more pronounced, however, upon the part of 
the male. In the case where a single female is courted by 
two males, the successful competitor for the honor of her 
hand, so to speak, is he whose movements are marked by 
the greatest elegance and grace. So intense does the desire 
to please become, that the slightest disposition upon the part 
of the lady to favor one of the rivals rather than the other, 
leads to the most unhappy consequences, a quarrel being 
precipitated, the contestants seeming determined to settle 
the result by the gage of battle. 
The time of mating varies somewhat with climate and 
with the conditions of theseason. Inthe warm, sunny South 
it occurs late in March or earlyin April. But further North, 
where winter still lingers with frosty coldness, the latter 
month is well nigh verging to its close, or gliding into the 
succeeding, before this essential business is thought of. 
When, however, it does happen, the female, with but little 
waste of time, withdraws from the society of her partner, 
and repairs to a secluded spot in the midst of a woods, where, 
usually beneath a clump of evergreen, or a pile of brush, or 
perhaps a fallen log or projecting rock, she hastily scratches 
a few dry leaves together for a nest. There she deposits, 
one by one, on as many consecutive days, her complement 
of six to twelve eggs, and immediately enters upon the 
duties of incubation. In this she is alone, the male lending 
no assistance, not even indirectly by attending to her demands 
for food. While she is thus occupied he seeks the company 
of others of his sex, with whom he remains until the young 
