208 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



of heather, the grey entirely of young- green shoots ; the 

 grouse with the older, seed-bearing tops. 



All game-birds feed very low, crouching along, and it 

 is surprisingly easy to overlook even so large and con- 

 spicuous a bird as a blackcock. A pack of these may be 

 feeding on short meadow-grass, slowly advancing with all 

 heads and tails down, yet may be overlooked, or perhaps 

 mistaken, at a careless glance, for a lot of molehills. 



There is one remarkable feature in the habits of 

 blackgame in mid -autumn which I do not think has 

 been explained. I refer to the distinct display of 

 amatory instincts which occurs in October, and during 

 mild seasons continues until November. On wet, foggy 

 mornings, in particular, one hears the old blackcocks 

 crooning, bubbling, and sneezing as excitedly as on a fine 

 day in early spring. With a glass, I have watched one 

 surrounded by his harem, strutting round some bare little 

 knowe, in fullest display, with neck swollen, tail expanded 

 erect, and wings trailing — truly a remarkable spectacle in 

 October. Whether it is merely a chronological miscalcu- 

 lation, or arises from a specific cause, the origin of which 

 is lost in the mists of a remote past, the instinct is certainly 

 conspicuous, and for want of another name I will coin the 

 word "pseudo-erotism" to designate it. The character 

 is not confined to blackgame, for grouse conspicuously, 

 and golden plover to a certain degree, display pseudo- 

 erotic instincts, and we all know how busily rooks employ 

 themselves at their nests in November. I also notice that 

 the black-headed gulls are apt to revisit their moorland 

 breeding-haunts during that month. 1 So strong is the 

 instinct in blackgame that in December, with snow a 



1 Snipe also "drum" during the autumnal season. I have never heard 

 this myself; but see Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, ii., pp. 315-6. 



