Northern Observations of Inland Birds 133 



Queensberry rules, the chief aim of each combatant 

 being, apparently, to take one and another of his rivals 

 at a disadvantage — preferably from behind, while the 

 other is repeUing a frontal assault, so that as often as 

 not the tournament becomes a mere melee, as impartially 

 delivered as it is blindly received. Feathers strew the 

 ground, which as the season advances — the birds returning 

 morning after morning — becomes trodden black by the 

 stamping feet of the pugilists. 



On one occasion I was so fortunate as to witness a 

 desperate fight for possession of a bunch of hens between 

 two blackcocks. The contest was so hot and evenly 

 matched that I felt sure one of the birds would be killed 

 or mortally wounded, but nothing of the kind happened. 

 After an extremely painful rough and tumble, the less 

 fortunate cock got up and flew straight away, whereupon 

 the victor, blown out to bursting point, turned to take 

 possession of the admiring bevy of beauty. The amusing 

 part about the whole business was that the hen birds 

 had taken fright on my arrival three or four minutes 

 previously, so that the two angry cocks had possessed 

 the field in solitary splendour 1 



One of these tournament grounds which came under 

 my observation was an old putting green standing in the 

 grounds of an historic castle in Kirkcudbrightshire. The 

 green was seldom used by the tenants, though it was 

 always kept in order, and occupied a little hidden-away 

 corner of the estate, deeply overshadowed by larch trees. 

 Another tournament ground in the Loch Tay country 

 was a patch of open forest caused by the presence of an 

 old lumber road. The blackgame met at a point at which 

 a dead ash tree, covered with ferns and fungi, lay across 

 the way, and from the look of things it was evident that 

 the swaggering cocks were accustomed to mounting 

 this point of eminence in order to be more conspicuously 



