NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 253 



have alluded to, the hen also went either up to, or within the 

 radius of, a certain male, the result being exactly similar, except 

 that, as the formal courtship was here less lengthy, there was no 

 occasion for a second manifestation of preference. Two hens, 

 therefore, have each had a will of their own, and fighting has 

 had nothing to do with either of the two cocks being the 

 favoured one. 



Another hen was courted for a long time, and very assidu- 

 ously, by a cock, who certainly succeeded in driving several 

 other ones away, rushing out at them from the area in which 

 he revolved about the object of his desires, putting them to 

 flight or preventing their coming nearer, and then returning to 

 continue the courtship. But in spite of this, and the impressive 

 pains he took, though she often seemed to hesitate, yet this hen 

 never yielded during the considerable time that I watched the 

 drama, though she possibly may have done whilst I was watching 

 some other one. There was nothing, however, to suggest this, 

 and when she finally walked off the ground, she was followed and 

 courted, for some distance, by another bird before flying away, 

 from which I feel sure that she retired unconquered. This pair 

 of birds were on the part of the ground nearest to me, and I had 

 a fine view of the courtship. The cock went either on one side 

 of the hen, passing ahead as she walked, or else paraded half- 

 round and in front of her, and, either way, the white feathers of 

 his tail must have been very conspicuous — presented to her, as 

 it were, in a back view. Now, as I have seen the Pheasant 

 court, he makes no such wide circlings as this, and, as he 

 presents no particular view from behind, this is significant and 

 interesting. The particular courting actions were as I have 

 before described — slow, pompous, methodical — no leaps or 

 springs of any kind. Yet of these, though they never ap- 

 proached to that peculiar state of frenzy which I have only 

 once, myself, seen, there was no lack amongst the cocks, at 

 times, when they were not courting the hens. Observation 

 shows, therefore, that the latter are won, not by this, but by a 

 quite different form of display, specially adapted to set off the 

 beauty of the male's plumage, point by point, or rather all 

 points together — scientifically, in short. For this alone, as a 

 spectacle, the female bird has eyes ; mere uncouth violence, 



