NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 55 



hisses. He seemed to go mad, in fact, and, both in voice and 

 action, gave much more the idea of a rampant cat than a bird. 

 By all appearances he was a very great brave, a mighty warrior 

 of the tribe, but when another bird flew down into the space 

 where he was performing, he retired — nay, ran out of it — in the 

 tamest way possible ; so that the sudden transition from the 

 raging thing he had been, to this, had something the effect of an 

 optical illusion — the eye was amazed by it. 



In fact, with the Blackcock, as with other birds, bellicosity 

 seems to go hand in hand with timidity, and it may be out of 

 these two elements, possibly, that the " war-dance" — so to call 

 it — has arisen. I am theorizing on what I have seen. Had 

 these two birds been as bold as they were hostile, had they felt 

 no nervous sensations, they would have fought, instead of leaping 

 and " chorrring " ; but they were afraid, or half afraid, to fight, 

 and these antics were a relief to their feelings. Animals, in 

 their psychology, are like pictures which resemble us in outline, 

 but want the shading. They have our grossnesses, so to speak, 

 but not our refinements. Thus, a bird might be afraid of another 

 bird, but it would not be ashamed of being so, and so would do 

 nothing on the principle of saving its face, or trying to disguise 

 its own feelings from itself. Still the wishing to fight, and not 

 daring to, would certainly produce mental discomfort, for which 

 some relief must be found, and it is not easy to imagine a better 

 one than violent actions, which, prompted by the very same 

 feelings, which, without the check of fear, would issue in battle, 

 might in time become, to some extent, a substitute for this. 

 Thus, amongst ourselves, men who both lack courage, and are of 

 a low, coarse nature — Pistols, not Connachers — find relief for the 

 failing, in boasting and braggadocio, and we may here, in essen- 

 tial elements, see, approximately, the same thing, for in human 

 psychology, too, there is more or less shading. 



If, then, the dancing of the Blackcock be something distinct 

 from the nuptial display, it need not, for that reason, be either a 

 challenge, or a means of " getting up " courage, nor yet the 

 mere safety-valve of sexual excitement. It may be, rather, 

 (though all these various elements may play a part) a substitute 

 for actual battle. Nothing, to look at it, can be more exhilarating, 

 and, while it has none of the disagreeables of fighting, it cannot 



