234 Wonders of the Bird World 



numberless cases, sit upon the eggs, the females meanwhile 

 larking about, calling and fighting, without any care for 

 their obedient mates ; and lastly the males, and the males 

 only, I believe, tend the young, and are to be flushed along 

 with the brood. In nearly all the higher sections of the 

 Animal Kingdom, we find the males fighting for the 

 females, and the latter caring for the young. Here, in one 

 insignificant little group of tiny birds, you have the ladies 

 fighting duels to preserve the chastity of their husbands, 

 and these latter sitting meekly in the nursery and looking 

 after the youngsters." As will be seen further on, the 

 ladies of the Hemipode class are not the only birds which 

 do the courting, but they are well known in the East as 

 redoubtable fighters, and they — that is the females, for the 

 insignificant little males are not taken into account — are 

 said to be kept on purpose for prize combats, precisely as 

 in England, in the old days, game-cocks were matched 

 against each other for wagers. No wonder then that the 

 superiority of the female Turiiix is shown by her disregard 

 for her husband, and the fact that she is aware of her own 

 larger build and superiority of plumage is demonstrated by 

 her contempt for her parental obligations, and by the 

 scrape in the ground which she supposes to be a nest. 

 After having deposited her three or four eggs in this 

 apology for a nest, she leaves the incubation and rearing 

 of the young to be performed by her husband, weak little 

 man that he is, while she roams about seeking for some 

 equally strong-minded lady to fight with. 



Most of the Snipes and Sandpipers show a superiority 

 in the female sex, but this is usually confined to size alone, 

 and no beauty of plumage accompanies the larger dimen- 

 sions of the female. Indeed the hen birds of the Waders, 

 though distinguished by their larger size and longer bills, 

 are distinctly inferior in richness of plumage to the males. 

 Thus the female of our Grey Plover {Sqiiatarola helvetica), 



