where the capercailzie have fought; and the black-cocks make the
feathers fly in every direction, when several engage in a battle
royal. The elder Brehm gives a curious account of the Balz, as the
love-dances and love-songs of the Black-cock are called in Germany. The
bird utters almost continuously the strangest noises: he holds his
tail up and spreads it out like a fan, he lifts up his head and neck
with all the feathers erect, and stretches his wings from the body.
Then he takes a few jumps in different directions, sometimes in a
circle, and presses the under part of his beak so hard against the
ground that the chin feathers are rubbed off. During these movements he
beats his wings and turns round and round. The more ardent he grows the
more lively he becomes, until at last the bird appears like a frantic
creature. At such times the black-cocks are so absorbed that they
become almost blind and deaf, but less so than the capercailzie: hence
bird after bird may be shot on the same spot, or even caught by the
hand. After performing these antics the males begin to fight: and the
same black-cock, in order to prove his strength over several
antagonists, will visit in the course of one morning several
Balz-places, which remain the same during successive years. (14. Brehm,
Thierleben, 1867, B. iv. s. 351. Some of the foregoing statements are
taken from L. Lloyd, The Game Birds of Sweden, etc., 1867, p. 79.)
The peacock with his long train appears more like a dandy than a
warrior, but he sometimes engages in fierce contests: the Rev. W.
Darwin Fox informs me that at some little distance from Chester two
peacocks became so excited whilst fighting, that they flew over the
whole city, still engaged, until they alighted on the top of St. John s
tower.
The spur, in those gallinaceous birds which are thus provided, is
generally single; but Polyplectron (Fig. 51) has two or more on each
leg; and one of the Blood-pheasants (Ithaginis cruentus) has been seen
with five spurs. The spurs are generally confined to the male, being
represented by mere knobs or rudiments in the female; but the females
of the Java peacock (Pavo muticus) and, as I am informed by Mr. Blyth,
of the small fire-backed pheasant (Euplocamus erythrophthalmus) possess
spurs. In Galloperdix it is usual for the males to have two spurs, and
for the females to have only one on each leg. (15. Jerdon, Birds of
India : on Ithaginis, vol. iii. p. 523; on Galloperdix, p. 541.) Hence
spurs may be considered as a masculine structure, which has been
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