Chap. XIII. 
LAW OF BATTLE. 
49 
baboos make the pretty little males of the amadavat 
(Estrelda amandava) fight together by placing three 
small cages in a row, with a female in the middle ; 
after a little time the two males are turned loose, and 
immediately a desperate battle ensiiesd^ When many 
males congregate at the same appointed spot and fight 
together, as in the case of grouse and various other 
birds, they are generally attended by the females, 
which afterwards pair with the victorious combatants. 
But in some cases the pairing precedes instead of suc- 
ceeding the combat : thus, according to Audubon,^^ 
several males of the Virginian goat-sucker (Capri- 
mulgus Virginianus) court, in a highly entertaining 
manner, the female, and no sooner has she made her 
choice, than her approved gives chase to all intruders, 
and drives them beyond his dominions.” Generally 
the males try with all their power to drive away or kill 
their rivals before they pair. It does not, however, 
appear that the females invariably prefer the victorious 
males. I have indeed been assured by M. W. Kowa- 
levsky that the female capercailzie sometimes steals 
away with a young male who has not dared to enter 
the arena with the older cocks ; in the same manner as 
occasionally happens with the does of the red-deer in 
Scotland. When two males contend in presence of a 
single female, the victor, no doubt, commonly gains his 
Mr. Blytb, ‘ Land and Water/ 1867, p. 212. 
Eicbardson, on Tetrao umbellus, ‘ Fauna Bor. Amer. : Birds,’ 1831, 
p. 343. L. Lloyd, ^ Game Birds of Sweden/ 1867, p. 22, 79, on the 
capercailzie and black-cock. Brehm, however, asserts Thierleben,’ &c., 
B. iv. s. 352) that in Germany the grey-hens do not generally attend 
the Balzen of the black-cocks, but this is an exception to the common 
rule ; possibly the hens may lie hidden in the surrounding bushes, as 
is known to be the case with the grey-hens in Scandinavia, and with 
other species in N. America. 
21 ‘ Ornithological Biography/ vol. ii. p. 275. 
VOL. TI. 
E 
