32 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. (cmap. III. 
truder as if lame, and having led him to some distance from the 
brood takes flight, and making a circuit returns to them. The 
eock bird sometimes keeps with the brood, but takes good care 
of himself, and running off leaves them to their fate. Wild and 
wary as the blackcock usually is, he sometimes waits till you 
almost tread on him, and then flutters away, giving as easy a 
shot to the sportsman as a turkey would do. At other times,. 
being fond of basking in the sun, he lies all day enjoying its 
rays in some open place where it is difficult to approach him 
without being seen. 
In snowy weather the black game perch very much on the 
fir-trees, as if to avoid chilling their feet on the colder ground: 
in wet weather they do the same. 
During the spring, and also in the autumn, abcut the time 
the first hoar-frosts are felt, I have often watched the blackcocks 
in the early morning, when they collect on some rock or height, 
and strut and crow with their curious note not unlike that of a 
wood-pigeon. On these occasions they often have most desperate 
battles. I have seen five or six blackcocks all fighting at once, 
and so intent and eager were they, that I approached within a 
few yards before they rose. Usually there seems to be a master- 
bird in these assemblages, wno takes up his position on the most 
elevated spot, crowing and strutting round and round with 
spread-out tail like a turkey-cock, and his wings trailing on the 
ground. The hens remain quietly near him, whilst the smaller 
or younger male birds keep at a respectful distance, neither 
daring to crow, except in a subdued kind of voice, or to ap- 
proach the hens. If they attempt the latter, the master-bird 
dashes at the intruder, and often a short melée ensues, several 
others joining in it, but they soon return to their former re- 
spectful distance. I have also seen an old blackcock crowing 
on a birch-tree with a dozen hens below it, and the younger 
cocks looking on in fear and admiration. It is at these times 
that numbers fall to the share of the poacher, who knows that 
the birds resort to the same spot every morning. 
Strong as the blackcock is, he is often killed by the peregrine 
falcon and the hen-harrier. When pursued by these birds, I 
have known the blackcock so frightened as to allow himself to 
be taken by tne hanu. I once caught one myself who had been 
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