NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 255 



to be burst in a fight. What one so seldom sees, yet what, with 

 all this, one has some right to expect, is a good set-to battle, 

 both whole-hearted and prolonged. The number of times that 

 these so martial-looking birds stand bill to bill, with every appear- 

 ance of being about to devour one another, yet do not devour 

 one another, or even fall-to, is remarkable, and as depressing for 

 the onlooker. 



May 13th.— Was ensconced by a little after 2. The Curlews, 

 as usual, first greeted the dawning, and were followed some time 

 afterwards — 3.12 by my watch — by the " chur-whais " and more 

 plaintive angry notes of the Blackcocks, after several had dashed 

 down, over the hedge, in the darkness. It is not till a perceptible 

 time after this that the more musical whirbling, or rukling, 

 begins. My observations of this morning were not quite the 

 same as those made hitherto. Arrivals of hen birds began 

 as usual — so far, that is to say, as it was possible for me to see 

 them — with the first light, and seemed quite over, long before 5. 

 As usual, also, they were few, nor was I aware of more than two 

 on the ground at the same time — I should doubt if half a dozen 

 in all came down. This time, however, the hens were more than 

 usually " coy, difficult and hard to please." One that I watched 

 for quite a long time was most assiduously courted by one male, 

 in particular, who certainly was fairly successful in keeping the 

 ground to himself. But although the hen was plainly affected 

 by his advances, kept pausing — in fact, advanced only in a series 

 of little pauses, represented by sudden and, as it were, compelled 

 stops — and although, moreover, she several times, half or more 

 than half, crouched, yet, as he came up, she would always make 

 a little dash away, on which the whole tedious ceremony of 

 courtship on the one side, and nervous irresolution on the 

 other, would begin afresh. In short, the patient, long-enduring 

 assiduities of the beau, continued as they were with an ever- 

 increasing impressiveness and sense of the gravity of the position, 

 without any perception of its ludicrousness, made quite a 

 remarkable spectacle, and though the coy, or nervous, little lady 

 was never quite won by them, yet their effect upon her was 

 more interestingly significant than if she quickly had been, she 

 seeming, indeed, to be, all the while, under a spell, from which 

 she could never quite break away. Then gradually she received 



