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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



show any signs of doing so now. The hen passes on, and after 

 awhile flies into the surrounding fir-belt, and now that she is 

 gone the two cocks again advance against each other, and there 

 are the beginnings of a half-hearted fight between them. Thus 

 the presence of the hen, on this occasion, has not brought about 

 a combat, but rather diverted it. It is the very same observa- 

 tion which I have made, day after day, in the case of the Kuffs, 

 whilst these were in the very height of the sexual frenzy. It is, in 

 fact, obvious that if male birds assemble specially to court the 

 hens, fighting must interfere with this object, so that if the 

 courting is really the more important matter of the two, we 

 might expect it to become gradually weaker, and, as it were, 

 broken up, in birds which have developed these habits. On the 

 other hand, if fighting, rather than courting, were the object of 

 such assemblies, it is strange that ordinary observation gives 

 quite a contrary idea. According to their relative importance, 

 the one element, as it seems to me, must be weakened by the 

 other, so that by what we see, in the presence of the hen, we 

 may judge of such relative importance. 



This is not the only hen that has appeared this morning. 

 Another has sat on a baby fir within the arena, with a cock 

 beside her on another one, whilst several others have flown over 

 the ground and come down in the trees that encircle it. A 

 greater number of cocks, too, than I have before seen have swept 

 from this tree to that, whilst some half-dozen, perhaps, have 

 come down upon the place, or sat in small firs close upon it, 

 two of the former rookling continually. During this rookling 

 the head is lowered, and the feathers of the neck swell and 

 move. Then, with a sort of start, the bird raises its head, gives 

 a little jerk of the wings, and stretching upwards, utters the 

 fierce "choc-kai" note. There have been some little runs over 

 the ground, but not very vigorous, and the leaping off it has 

 been almost, if not quite, wanting. It was entirely wanting in 

 the presence of the hen, forming no part of the display. All 

 this last has been in the bright sunshine, which floods now 

 both trees and arena. It is, however, most bitterly cold, 

 and I can sit still no longer. But all, I think, is over for this 

 morning. 



The birds, therefore, are obviously in a more coming-on 



