158 TETRAO TETRIX. 



its plumage, as alleged by some writers, following the popuMr 

 notion that in the breeding season all birds are more gorgeously 

 apparelled, is not brighter than in winter. Although destitute 

 of spurs, it fights in the same manner as the domestic cock, 

 lowering its head, erecting and spreading its tail, and leaping 

 against its adversary, endeavouring to drive him oif and if pos- 

 sible tear him to pieces. These combats, however, are less 

 bloody than those of our game-cocks, although they are engaged 

 in with so much earnestness that an unscrupulous fowler might 

 easily carry destruction among the gallants. A cock who has 

 beaten oiF his opponents from his favourite station, betakes 

 himself to it morning and evening, struts in a pompous manner, 

 with spread tail, and stiftened wings rustling against the ground, 

 calls aloud with a harsh grating voice, and invites the neigh- 

 bouring females, or rather challenges those of his own sex with- 

 in hearing to come forward and dispute his claims to the favour 

 of his elect bride. When this season of excitement is over, the 

 males, forgetting their animosities, meet together, and endea- 

 vour to recruit their diminished energies by following their 

 ordinary occupations in peace. 



The females meanwhile, having sought out a fit place, gene- 

 rally in the shelter of some low bush, or among rank grass, 

 and formed in it their inartificial nest, composed of withered 

 grass and occasionally a few twigs placed in a slight hollow, 

 deposit their eggs, to the number of from five to eight or ten. 

 They are of a regular oval shape, generally two inches long, 

 one inch and seven-twelfths broad, with a ground colour vary- 

 ing from yellowish- white to very pale yellowish-red, irregularly 

 spotted and dotted with brownish-red. As the nests are usually 

 placed in low situations, it frequently happens that in ver}^ wet 

 seasons, they are partially or entirely inundated. 



The following letter with which I have been favoured by 

 Mr. W. Smellie Watson, better known as a distinguished por- 

 trait-painter, than as a naturalist, although in the latter capa- 

 city he inherits the spirit of his ancestor, the celebrated author 

 of the PJiilosophy of Natural History, will, I have no doubt, be 

 read with much pleasure, as affording information derived from 

 personal observation of the habits of this interesting bird : 



