NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 249 



other and rival males to stand quietly by, whilst the object of 

 the one is effected, I have drawn attention to in a former paper. 

 Here, however, it is otherwise. The surrender of the female has 

 a violent effect upon non-favoured males, who run to interfere, 

 so that, were the meeting-ground no larger, in proportion to the 

 size of the birds, than is that of the Buffs, it would be difficult 

 for matters ever to be carried to a conclusion. But this is not 

 the case. It greatly exceeds it in dimensions, and the males, 

 except when fighting, or (what is more frequent) offering to fight 

 one another, stand at a corresponding distance apart, so that 

 as the rite is, for the most part, quickly performed, it is not often 

 put a stop to by scandalized fellow-pretendants. Sometimes, 

 however, it is. For instance, in one case, this morning, two 

 cocks came rushing up, and, in a moment, all four birds were 

 entangled, as it were, in a heap. Yet even here, when the first 

 scrimmage was over, there was no good honest fighting, but only 

 rushings about. 



This was the only actual mating that I saw, or, at least, can 

 remember, during the first and most active state of things, from 

 the first commencement, at or before dawn, to the time when 

 the hens, who were never many, had flown away, leaving some 

 twenty cocks on the ground. It was not till after 5 that a single 

 hen again flew down upon it, her appearance producing a curious 

 scene of excitement. Everywhere cock birds leaped into the air 

 with excited "kee-kees," generally supplementing the leap with 

 a short flight of a yard or so, before again coming down. In 

 fact, the arrival of this one hen, upon an outside part of the 

 widely extended arena, produced a general commotion, all over it, 

 which began whilst she was still in the air. She now advanced 

 slowly into the arena, courted, as she went, by first one and then 

 another male, often by two or three together, seeming struck, all 

 the while, making those constant little, odd, jerky pauses to 

 which I have before alluded, but still going on, and thus, in spite 

 of some following her, passing gradually from one male to 

 another — for each has his own more especial domain like the 

 Buffs. At length, however, one bird seemed more to her liking, 

 she paused more frequently, at length stood still, then crouched, 

 and coition was effected. Here, then, is choice and selection on 

 the part of the female bird. She came evidently for a certain 



