ttle they begin a system of fence which is intended
to provoke the enemy to an untimely assault. The art of the game appears
to consist in persuading the adversary to venture an attack where his
force will be spent in the air, so that a blow can be given him before
he has time to recover position. The issue depends much on the endurance
of the birds. Their movements require so much energy that one of them is
apt to become exhausted before the other is quite spent. In rare cases,
only one of which has been seen by me, a weary bird will feign death for
a minute or so and thus obtain new strength with which to renew the
combat, profiting also by the confusion which he will bring upon his
adversary by his sudden revival.

Although the combatant motive which we find in the males among our
barnyard fowls has doubtless been developed through their combats with
each other, the valiant spirit which has come from it often leads the
creatures to attack the enemies of their flock. I have seen a nimble
game-cock strike a hawk which was pouncing to its prey, delivering the
blow some feet above the surface of the ground, and this so effectively
that the marauder was driven away in a sorely hurt condition. I have
seen males of the game variety attack a number of other larger animals
which in any way threatened their charges.

Although our barnyard fowl are almost the only ground birds which
have ever been brought to a state of perfect domestication, there are
several other species of the same group which have been taught in a
measure to adhere to man. Of these perhaps the longest in
domestication is the peafowl. This creature, though it has edible,
indeed we may say savory flesh, has retained its small place in
civilization solely on account of its extraordinary beauty. For its
size it is doubtless the most beautiful of animals, its plumage,
especially the magnificent display of the tail, exceeding that of any
other natural object. There are other birds of small size which vie
with the peacock in the details of ornamentation. Those jewels among
the feathered tribes, the humming-birds, have a more delicate beauty.
The birds-of-paradise and the lyre-birds have a grace in the attitudes
of particular feathers which is unequalled; but for splendor none of
them approach the peacock in his best estate.

[Illustration: Contributions from Asia, Africa,
and America--Peacocks, Guinea-fowl, and Turkey]

The peacock is a