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AN OBSERVATIONAL DIARY on the NUPTIAL HABITS 

 of the BLACKCOCK (TETRAO TETRIX) in 

 SCANDINAVIA and ENGLAND. 



By Edmund Selous. 



(Part I. Scandinavia.) 



(Continued from p. 29.) 



April 30th.— In situ by 3.30 a.m. The whole air is obscured 

 by heavy mists, and the sky palled in clouds, yet, notwith- 

 standing, quite a hubble-bubble of rookling is going on, as well 

 as " tchu-whai's," " choc-kerada's," and the "chucking" of 

 hens — also a sharp whisking sound, which has more of a 

 whistling intonation than I have yet heard. 



Now, with the lightening, and somewhat earlier than usual, 

 all this ceases, except for an occasional bird or so. This 

 cessation is a very marked feature. On the morning when I 

 unfortunately came late, and found the birds on the ground, this 

 was at about 5 a.m. It would be contrary to my experience, on 

 every other morning, had there not been this pause, and the 

 probability is that the birds had not been long down— or, at 

 any rate, active — when I came. The stillness is now complete. 

 " Roorr-roorr-roorrr," as a preliminary, and then the rest — that 

 sentence — is the Blackcock's full rookie or whirble, and this is 

 repeated over and over again for an indefinite period. At 

 intervals there is a sort of break in the note. " Rerr-rerrke- 

 rer-rer-rer-rer " the bird says, then, in a higher key, and then 

 the other recommences. 



I have just heard, for the first time, the soft-sounding, but 

 bellicose, " choc-kerada " note, uttered in a tree. It was by one 

 of two birds, in two birches, not far from each other. One of 

 the pair now flies down, though not into the arena, and the 

 other, still in his tree, utters the note several times ; then he 

 flies down too. All the notes, then, may be uttered as well 



