THE COMMON BLACK GROUSE. 177 



quished, the noble full-dressed blackcock takes his 

 stand, commencing at first dawn ; and where the game 

 is abundant, the hill on every side repeats the murmur 

 ing call, almost before the utterers can be distin- 

 guished. They strut around the spot selected, trailing 

 their wings, inflating the throat and neck, and puffing 

 up the plumage of those parts, and the now brilliant 

 wattle above the eyes, raising and expanding their tail, 

 displaying the beautifully contrasting white under- 

 covers, and imitating, as it were, the attitudes of a 

 little turkey-cock. He is soon heard by the females, 

 who crowd around their lord and master. 



This season of admiration does not long continue ; 

 the females disperse to seek proper situations for de- 

 positing their eggs, while the males, losing their 

 feeling for love and fighting at the same time, reas- 

 semble in small parties, and seek the shelter of the 

 brush and fern beds to complete a new moult, and 

 are seldom seen except early in the morning, being 

 now the very reverse in stupidity to what they were 

 formerly in vigilance. The sexes continue separate 

 until the winter, when the old males join with the 

 young broods, and all resort, morning and evening, 

 to some favourite feeding grounds, spending the 

 middle of the day in basking, pluming, or sport- 

 ing upon some sunny hillside. Upon the females 

 devolve the whole duties of rearing and protecting 

 the young. The nest is made on the ground like 

 that of the other grouse, and when hatched the 

 young are conveyed to the low rushy hollows, where 



VOL. VIII. M 



