THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 83 



benedicts, and are prosecuted with the utmost enthusi- 

 asm while they last. Their first movement is to prepare 

 an al fresco ball-room, and this they do by retiring to a 

 spot where shrubbery grows, and trampling down the 

 grass over an area of about twenty or thirty square feet. 



When this is ready, the males frequent it every morn- 

 ing and evening for a fortnight or more, and indulge in 

 the most grotesque dancing ever seen by human eyes. 

 As soon as all are assembled, tbe females retire to one 

 side to act as wall-flowers, and the males step into the 

 ball-room with the easy assurance of ballet-dancers. 

 They then ruflie up their neck feathers, elevate their 

 tails, drop their rigid wings close to the ground, and, 

 while keej)ing up a rapid vibrating or drumming sound 

 with them, circle round and round each other in slow 

 waltzing time, and though they look as if they were 

 about to attack one another, yet they seldom, if ever, do 

 so. They pass and repass each other, now to the right, 

 then to the left; they stop to bow, then squat on the 

 ground in the most ludicrous postures, and gaze intently 

 at one another for a few moments. On arising, they as- 

 sume the most stilted attitudes, as if they were over- 

 powered with their own importance, and strut about 

 with the self-conscious air of a drum-major. They move 

 in couples and in fours, and when they wheel they fre- 

 quently indulge in gentle clucking, as if they were com- 

 plimenting each other on their graceful posing and 

 knowledge of ball-room etiquette. 



The figures of their dances are not unlike those of a 

 minuet, or an old-fashioned Spanish suelfa, but they are 

 far more interesting, and, perhaps, a little more com- 

 plex, for, though all go through the same motions, yet 

 each couple goes through with them as it wishes, and 

 acts independently of the others. The pace of the feath- 

 ered terpsichoreans varies considerably, being sometimes 

 fast and sometimes slow, but no matter what it may be, 



