Handbook of Birds of Australia, vol. i. p. 395; vol. ii. p. 383.)
With many other birds the females are larger than the males; and, as
formerly remarked, the explanation often given, namely, that the
females have most of the work in feeding their young, will not suffice.
In some few cases, as we shall hereafter see, the females apparently
have acquired their greater size and strength for the sake of
conquering other females and obtaining possession of the males.
The males of many gallinaceous birds, especially of the polygamous
kinds, are furnished with special weapons for fighting with their
rivals, namely spurs, which can be used with fearful effect. It has
been recorded by a trustworthy writer (11. Mr. Hewitt, in the Poultry
Book by Tegetmeier, 1866, p. 137.) that in Derbyshire a kite struck at
a game-hen accompanied by her chickens, when the cock rushed to the
rescue, and drove his spur right through the eye and skull of the
aggressor. The spur was with difficulty drawn from the skull, and as
the kite, though dead, retained his grasp, the two birds were firmly
locked together; but the cock when disentangled was very little
injured. The invincible courage of the game-cock is notorious: a
gentleman who long ago witnessed the brutal scene, told me that a bird
had both its legs broken by some accident in the cockpit, and the owner
laid a wager that if the legs could be spliced so that the bird could
stand upright, he would continue fighting. This was effected on the
spot, and the bird fought with undaunted courage until he received his
death-stroke. In Ceylon a closely allied, wild species, the Gallus
Stanleyi, is known to fight desperately in defence of his seraglio,
so that one of the combatants is frequently found dead. (12. Layard,
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. xiv. 1854, p. 63.) An
Indian partridge (Ortygornis 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 almost every bird you kill. (13.
Jerdon, Birds of India, vol. iii. p. 574.)
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 (Tetrao 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
390