168 
MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO. 
look out for the female, and then resume their strutting 
and puffing, moving with as much rapidity as the nature 
of their gait will admit. During this ceremonious 
approach, the males often encounter each other, and 
desperate battles ensue, when the conflict is only termi- 
nated by the flight or death of the vanquished. 
This pugnacious disposition is not to be regarded as 
accidental, but as resulting from a wise and excellent 
law of nature, who always studies the good of the 
species, without regard to the individuals. Did not 
females prefer the most perfect of their species, and 
were not the favours of beauty most willingly dispensed 
to the victorious, feebleness and degeneracy would 
soon mark the animal creation ; but, in consequence of 
this general rule, the various races of animals are propa- 
gated by those individuals who are not only most to 
be admired for external appearance, but most to be 
valued for their intrinsic spirit and energy. 
When the object of his pursuit is discovered, if the 
female be more than one year old, she also struts, and 
even gobbles, evincing much desire ; she turns proudly 
round the strutting male, and suddenly opening her 
wings, throws herself towards him, as if to terminate 
his procrastination, and, laying herself on the earth, 
receives his dilatory caresses. But should he meet a 
young hen, his strut becomes different, and his move- 
ments are violently rapid ; sometimes rising in air, he 
takes a short circular flight, and on alighting drags his 
wings for a distance of eight or ten paces, running at 
full speed, occasionally approaching the timorous hen, 
and pressing her, until she yields to his solicitations. 
Thus are they mated for the season, though the male 
does not confine himself exclusively to one female, nor 
does he hesitate to bestow his attentions and endear- 
ments on several, whenever an opportunity offers. 
One or more females, thus associated, follow their 
favourite, and roost in his immediate neighbourhood, if 
not on the same tree, until they begin to lay, when 
they change their mode of life, in order to save their 
eggs, which the male uniformly breaks if in his power. 
