SOME BIRDS OF THE HEIGHTS 79 



to ten eggs are yellowish-white, with orange-brown 

 spots. Unlike the Red Grouse and Ptarmigan, the 

 Blackcock is polygamous, and in late summer one 

 sometimes sees him of an evening resting on a Birch- 

 tree with his four or five wives round about him quite 

 an Oriental picture ! In early spring there is a remark- 

 able tournament, or "lek," in which the cocks first 

 fight resolutely with one another and afterwards dis- 

 play themselves before the Greyhens. 



It was in Glen Brora, in Sutherlandshire, that we 

 once saw this tournament and display an unforget- 

 table spectacle. On one of the shoulders of the hills 

 there was a walled-in sheepf old and beside it an almost 

 level sward with small Birch-trees and Alder-trees 

 round about. We had started in the very early morn- 

 ing and hidden ourselves in the sheepfold. When the 

 sun began to show itself at dawn we had the good 

 fortune to watch the Blackcocks strutting and dancing 

 on the jousting-ground. The red wattles above the 

 eye were extraordinarily vivid, and the sheen on their 

 feathers was so brilliant that we could hardly believe 

 that they were the birds we knew well in everyday 

 life. As they assembled they kept on calling we 

 suppose for the Greyhens to come to witness their 

 jousting. We saw two rivals enter the lists with 

 lowered head and wings and arched tail. They struck 

 at one another with beak and wings, and the victor 

 crowed. By and by the Greyhens appeared quietly 

 on the scene and sat down on the branches of small 

 Alder-trees. This seemed to strike a new note, for 

 the rivals began to jump and dance, uttering hoarse 

 cries. The Greyhens did not seem to us to be much 

 excited or even much interested, but there was no 



