COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 
281 
It is highly improbable that any bird-marriage is ever 
consummated without many a jealous fight taking place. 
If we cannot prove this, one thing we do know, and that 
is, that during the breeding season which shortly follows 
the migration, old bachelors and forlorn widowers, both 
alike eager to enter the bonds of wedlock, will stroll 
within the beat of some happy couple, and are ready at 
any time to break a lance with the spouse for the 
possession of his good lady. Every male bird, no matter 
how timid he may appear by nature, shows the highest 
courage against one of his own species, and fights like a 
hero for his mistress. The beak, spurred tarsi, and, in 
some cases, even spurred wings, are the weapons used 
in these encounters, and it is not uncommon, although 
the combatants are so equally armed, that the fight ends 
fatally. 
Any intruder upon the beat of a pair is immediately, 
and without any challenge, either forthwith driven off by 
the male, or forced to fight. According to the class of 
the combatants the arena selected is either land, air, or 
water. It also sometimes happens that the three realms 
combined serve as battle-field. The Eagle, and all 
members of that family, even to the smallest Hawk, 
fight in the air, using both beak and claws. Wonderful 
evolutions, grapplings quick as thought and brilliant 
parries, a bold pursuit on one side, and an equally 
determined resistance on the other, are the striking 
features of such combats, which afford a magnificent 
spectacle to the looker-on, though unable to watch the 
battle from so close a distance as the attendant Rooks, 
those noisy spectators who, owing to their powers of 
flight, are enabled on all sides to follow the struggling 
champions wherever they go. If the royal combatants 
