472 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



SO that one of the combatants is frequently fonnd dead." 

 An Indian partridge {Ortygornia 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 al- 

 most 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 (TetrcM urogallus and T. tetrix), which are both 

 polygamists, have regular appointed 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, sometimes in a circle, 

 and presses the under part of his beak so hard against the 

 ground that the chin feathers are rubbed off. During 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 blind and deaf, but less so than the capercailzie: 

 hence bird after bird may be shot on the same spot, or even 

 caught by the hand. After performing these antics the 

 males begin to fight: and the same black-cock, in order 

 to prove his strength over several antagonists, will visit 



" Lajard, "Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. xiv., 1854, p. 63. 

 «8 Jerdon, "Birds of India," vol. iii. p. 61i. 



