436 BRITISH BIRDS. 



The Black Grouse of the Caucasus (T.mlolcosiewiczi}, 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' meeting-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 woyalloides, which Pere 

 David 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." 



