Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/30

 three minutes: the appearance of a single female suffices to put an instant end to their quarrel, and they all fly after her as if mad. The female shows the natural reserve of her sex, without which, even among larks, every female would probably fail to find a male [this is a little too flattering for larks, and even for men]. When the latter," continues Audubon, "flies towards her, sighing forth his sweetest notes, she retreats before her ardent admirer in such a way that he knows not whether he is repulsed or encouraged."

In this little picture the author has noted all the striking traits of the love of birds—the courage and jealousy of the male, his efforts to charm the female by his beauty and the sweetness of his song, and finally, the coquetry of the female, who retreats, and thus throws oil on the fire. The combats of the amorous males among many species of birds have been observed and described minutely. "The large blue male herons," says Audubon, "attack each other brutally, without courtesy; they make passes with their long beaks and parry them like fencing masters, often for half-an-hour at a time, after which the vanquished one remains on the ground, wounded or killed."

The male Canadian geese engage in combats which last more than half-an-hour; the vanquished sometimes return to the charge, and the fight always takes place in an enclosed field, in the middle of a circle formed by the band or clan of which the rivals form part.

But it is especially among the gallinaceæ that love inspires the males with warlike fury. In this order of birds nearly all the males are of bellicose temperament. Our barn-door cock is the type of the gallinaceæ—vain, amorous, and courageous. Black cocks are also always ready for a fight, and their females quietly look on at their combats, and afterwards reward the conqueror. We may observe analogous facts, only somewhat masked, in savage, and even in civilised humanity. The conduct of certain females of the Tetras urogallus is still more human. According to Kowalewsky, they take advantage of a moment when the attention of the old cocks is entirely absorbed by