126 Capt. Blakiston on the Birds of the 



as is always the case on these occasions^ and did not seem to 

 heed my approach ; but as I wanted to get as near a view as possi- 

 ble, I went down on my hands and knees, and crawled towards 

 the spot. Getting closer, I lay flat on my stomach, and pushed 

 myself along till I gained the cover of a small stone (a rare 

 thing on the prairies) near the top of the knoll, within ten 

 yards of some of the birds, where I stationed myself, and was 

 well repaid the trouble of getting there. In this instance there 

 were eight or ten birds (there are often many more) engaged 

 in the performance. The two nearest to me were in the atti- 

 tudes of fighting-cocks opposed to each other, and, besides the 

 feathers of the occiput, ear-coverts, and whole neck being set 

 out to the greatest extent possible, the sharp-pointed tail was 

 erected at right-angles to the back, thereby causing the light- 

 coloured under tail-coverts to assume the form of a rosette ; 

 the wings were lowered and somewhat spread out, touching the 

 ground, the quill-feathers of which, kept in a constant quiver, 

 made a sound like the rustling of a lady's silk dress. These two 

 every now and then circled round, but kept their bodies in 

 the same attitude, their heads nearly touching the ground, and 

 again and again they "came up to the scratch/' Occasionally 

 one of the two would make a jump in the air to the height of a 

 couple of feet, and sometimes they chased one another ; but they 

 did not appear to fight. A little beyond these two front actors 

 was one amusing himself by strutting about with his head as high 

 as he could get it, and, like the others, with his tail erect ; in 

 fact, as his back was inclined, the tail, being vertical, was bent 

 forward towards it : this is much more than the bird is wont to 

 do at other times ; for although, when it is frightened and about 

 to take wing, it erects its tail, it is not nearly to the same extent. 

 Besides these, others were running about and chasing one 

 another in various directions, occasionally taking up the posi- 

 tion of fighting-cocks, as already described. Then there were a 

 couple which appeared to be doing nothing, but still they had 

 their tails erected like the others. An odd one or two every 

 now and then flew up and pitched again within a few yards. 

 But above all this, and besides the rustling sound of the wings, 

 there was a constant loud chuckling noise kept up, which added 



