164 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



To these recognised places of meeting a covey repairs 

 at daybreak, the cocks separating and each taking up his 

 position at some distance apart from the other. They 

 then commence their croaking " a r-r-r " to attract the 

 notice of the hens, who reply at once with their plaintive 

 " ee-ac," until one of the latter approaches to within a few 

 paces of the rock on which a cock is standing with his 

 neck stretched to its fullest extent and tail raised and 

 expanded. Being now pleased with the success of his 

 music, he turns round and round, and literally '"'spreads 

 himself," to use an Americanism, until such time as he 

 flies off the rock and commences the love-chase. 



Ptarmigan do not fio-ht nearly so much as Grouse or 



/ 



even Partridges, but a cock whose reiterated calls have 

 received no response from the fair sex, often leaves his 

 post and proceeds in search of a mate, of course having to 

 trespass on the grounds of one of his adjacent rivals to do 

 so. This is naturally resented at once bv the rio-htful 



J *i O 



proprietor and a fight ensues, the various phases of which 

 are similar to Grouse combats in their character. As 

 often as not, the intruder gets the best of it, in which 

 case the hen manifests no uneasiness as to her change of 

 masters, and rather enjoys the fight while it lasts, running 

 round and round the combatants uttering her one 



o 



querulous cry. 



The pairing-season being over by the middle of May, 

 the hen selects her nesting -place, which is jealously 

 guarded by the male. 



Whilst camping in Iceland in 1889, I spent three 

 months in the " Myvatn " district, which is by far the 

 wildest and grandest part of that otherwise uninteresting 



