THE BLACK COCK. 157 



wood. By Jove ! there is the very fellow at which you 

 aimed exactly where he was ; he is looking up, it is true, 

 somewhat surprised, but a moment more and he is at 

 his old tricks again, creeping along as sillily as before. 

 It reminds you of the " medicine man " in Catlin's 

 Indians, who is playing just such antics as our black cock 

 here, whom we have come a day's journey to see.* He 

 calls in a somewhat coaxing tone, and the three notes 

 of which his invitation consists are indicative of impa- 

 tience and longing. From the birch coppice hard by, a 

 hen now comes in answer to his summons. She is no 

 prude: she knows too that she is, what by some is 

 termed, " the weaker vessel," and that it is her duty 

 to obey the will of her lord. From her his advances 

 meet with no repulse, impetuous and insatiable as may 

 be his love. He takes to himself a second and a third 

 mate ; and here each morning before the dawn he 

 meets them, and celebrates his nuptials anew. The 

 sweets of a honeymoon are compressed into one short 

 span. 



Another shot from your comrade's gun, but it does 

 not disturb them. They go on dancing in a ring as 



* The dances of the wild tribes of men are generally, or very fre- 

 quently, at least, nothing more than an imitation of the movements of 

 wild animals ; as the bear-dance, the buifalo dance, and others. There 

 is a figure in one of the dances represented in Catlin's book, exactly in 

 the attitude of the black cock as above described, and not a whit less 

 foolish-looking. 



