436 BRITISH BIRDS. 
The Black Grouse of the Caucasus (7. mlokosiewiczi), already mentioned, 
differs in being somewhat smaller, in having a different-shaped tail, and 
being without white in the plumage. The female is much greyer, and the 
markings on the feathers are finer. 
The true home of the Black Grouse, although very near the moors, is 
lower down the hill-sides, where the pine-woods, fir-plantations, and birch- 
copses afford it the seclusion it loves. It frequents the borders of the 
moors where the clumps of pines, birches, and alders form the boundary- 
line between the cultivated districts and the wild. It is fond of those 
sheltered hollows, just below the tableland of moor studded with spruce- 
and fir-groves, where the ground is covered with heath and bracken, and 
strewed with boulders of rock over which the bilberry and the cranberry 
grow so luxuriantly, whilst here and there the reed-patches and alder- 
clumps mark out the marshy swamps. It loves the half-cultivated “roughs” 
and steep ravines near the margins of the brooks, and the commons 
covered with bushes and tall, rank vegetation, with here and there a silver 
birch. Although it likes to frequent the open, it must be in the imme- 
diate vicinity of cover of some kind, whither it can retire when alarmed or 
disturbed. 
Like the Capercaillie the Blackcock is polygamous, and certain localities 
are selected by the males as pairing-grounds. These “ laking ’’-places*, as 
they are locally termed, are frequented by a great number of males, who 
fight for the possession of the females, who are enticed to the place by 
their peculiar love-notes, or “spel,” as it is called in Sweden. Mr. Lloyd 
(‘Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway,’ p. 79) says that the 
spel of the Blackcock consists of two notes, or rather succession of notes, — 
the first being a kind of loud cooing, and the latter a hissing noise, which 
in clear and calm weather are audible more than a mile off. The hens, as 
they gradually approach, run to and fro with drooping wings, uttering a 
_ plaintive response. 
Dixon writes :—“ The Blackcock lives in peace throughout the greater 
part of the year, but early in April commences a fierce and incessant warfare 
until all the females are won. Some particular spot is chosen in their 
haunts, where they congregate or ‘lek,’ as it is sometimes called; and a 
visit to such a place will well repay the ornithologist. Repair to the 
birds’ mecting-place a little before dawn, and, carefully concealing yourself 
amongst the surrounding vegetation, watch their actions with ease. It 
and Oustalet do not include the Black Grouse amongst the birds of China, and imply 
that Swinhoe’s statement was based upon a female of Tetrao urogalloides, which Pére 
Dayid probably erroneously identified as a Black Grouse, 
* “To lake” is a common word in Yorkshire signifying “to play.” A workman who 
is out of work or has taken a holiday is said to be “laking.” 
