ORNITHOLOGICAL ‘NOTES. 555 
Blackgame appear to have been destroyed by tremendous 
torrents of rain, the hens have suddenly returned to the 
trysting-places, and the love-songs of the cocks are ringing 
out again just as lustily as in the ordinary season. 
From half-past three in the morning until five or six 
o’clock one sees the brave champions fighting and challenging, 
so that in this locality the Blackcock have been drumming on 
the regular spots close to the shooting-screens from a week 
before the commencement of the legal shooting-season in the 
end of February up to its close on the 31st of May, and will 
very lixely continue to do so well into June. 
