382 



ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



"During the period of mating, and while the females 

 are occupied in incubation, the males have a practice of 

 assembling principally by themselves. To some select and 

 central spot, where there is very little underwood, they re- 

 pair from the adjoining district. From the exercise per- 

 formed there, this is called a scratching-place. The time 

 of meeting is the break of day. As soon as the light ap- 

 pears the company assembles from every side, sometimes 

 to the number of forty or fifty. When the dawn is past, 

 the ceremony begins by a low tooting ' from one of the 

 cocks. This is answered by another. They then come 

 forth one by one from the bushes, and strut about with all 

 the pride and ostentation they can display. Their necks 

 are incurvated, the feathers on them are erected into a sort 

 of ruff ; the plumes of their tails are expanded like fans ; 

 they strut about in a style resembling, as nearly as small 

 may be illustrated by great, the pomp of the turkey-cock. 

 They seem to vie with each other in stateliness ; and, as 

 they pass each other, frequently cast looks of insult and 

 utter notes of defiance. These are the signals for battle. 

 They engage with wonderful spirit and fierceness. During 

 these contests they leap a foot or two from the ground, and 

 utter a cackling, screaming, and discordant cry. . . . 



" But what appears to me the most remarkable circum- 

 stance relative to this bird is that not one of all those 

 writers who have attempted its history has taken the 

 least notice of those two extraordinary bags of yellow skin 

 which mark the neck of the male, and which constitute so 

 striking a peculiarity. These appear to be formed by an 

 expansion of the gullet, as well as of the exterior skin of the 



1 When the male Grouse utters this peculiar sound " the parts about 

 the throat are sensibly inflated and swelled. It may be heard on a still 

 morning for three or more miles ; some say they have perceived it as 

 far as five or six. This noise is a sort of ventriloquism. It does not 

 strike the ear of a by-stander with much force, bat impresses him with 

 the idea, though produced within a few rods of him, of a voice a mile 

 or more distant." 



