64 TETRAONID^E. 



in the season. The males assemble even before the first 

 dawn of day, and utter a succession of notes which in calm 

 weather can be heard at the distance of a mile or more. At 

 this time it is popularly supposed in Scandinavia that they 

 are deaf ; but this is a mistake, although when combating, 

 the cocks are more easily approached than at other times. 

 As the old cocks alight, they begin to make love to the 

 hens, which keep somewhat in the background amongst the 

 bushes ; they strut about with outstretched neck, trailing 

 wings, and expanded tail, occasionally vaulting high in the 

 air, and describing an irregular somersault, coming down 

 with the head turned in the opposite direction. Desperate 

 combats frequently ensue, and at times even a general 

 melee. When the lek is over for the time, the birds separate : 

 each cock accompanied by the hens which he has secured ; 

 and at the conclusion of the pairing-season the latter retire 

 to their breeding-grounds. The females make a slight nest 

 on the ground, frequently under shelter of some low thick 

 bush, and deposit from six to ten eggs of a yellowish- 

 white, spotted and speckled with orange-brown ; measuring 

 about 2 by 1'45 in. There is also a short spel in autumn, 

 when the males again separate from the females and flock 

 together. 



Although to a certain extent arboreal in their habits, cover 

 is by no means essential to Black Grouse during the whole 

 of the year ; but they must have water, and their favourite 

 haunts, especially when young, are moist forest lands and 

 swampy, rushy moors, where they feed freely upon the juicy 

 brown seeds of a coarse thick rush. To the drainage and 

 reclaiming of much of this kind of land, Mr. Harvie-Brown 

 partially attributes the undoubted recent decrease in the 

 number of Black Grouse in Scotland.* Ants' eggs and 

 other insect food are favourites with very young birds. In 

 spring, says Macgillivray, their food consists principally of 

 twigs and catkins of alder, birch and willow ; in summer, 

 of tops of heather, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Empetrum 

 nigrum; in autumn, of heath, crowberries, cranberries, 



* 'The Capercaillie in Scotland/ Chap. xii. 



