NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 257 



for the exertions of the hen herself, he might possibly have been 

 successful. She, however, was not at all inclined to submit to 

 these rough methods. 



Thus, continued observation does not show an absolute uni- 

 formity in the nuptial methods of the males. The one that I 

 have first mentioned seemed, from my own observations both 

 here and in Sweden, to go beyond the average of pomp and 

 solemnity in his wooing, and I was particularly struck by the 

 wide extent of his circlings, as being well adapted for a full hind, 

 as well as front and side, view. Another was altogether quicker 

 and brisker, nor were his circumambulations anything like so 

 wide or full — in fact, not a marked feature — his appearance, in 

 consequence, being not nearly so impressive, whilst a third 

 threw off form altogether, and resorted to force. The birds, 

 generally, however — all the rest except these last two — were far 

 more on the pattern of the extra formal one. Long before 5 

 everything was over, and no more hen birds had come to the lek. 

 Had I remained quiet perhaps they would have done, but I had 

 to rise and run about, being no longer able to endure the cold — 

 a cold which, though not freezing water, seemed to my sensa- 

 tions greater than that of Sweden, earlier in the year. Possibly 

 the dampness of these English moors, with their dreadful, 

 stealing, chill mists, may account for this — at any rate, I have 

 found it less bearable. I have been without my plaids, indeed, 

 but warmly clad in an ordinary way, and with a motor suit over 

 all — I may here say en passant, as perhaps of use, that double 

 trousers, shirts, &c, are, in my experience, warmer than the one, 

 with underclothing ; and the two methods are combinable. 



Of one other successful courtship, I unluckily saw only the 

 end, and can, therefore, only say, in regard to it, that the same 

 hen had been courted, before, unsuccessfully, by various males ; 

 so that here, too, the evidence, though less complete, yet points 

 in the same direction. 



To judge by what I have seen, the union of the sexes is, 

 owing to the strenuous interference of rival males, effected with 

 much greater difficulty in the case of the Blackcock than in that 

 of the Ruff. That curious forbearance on the part of the 

 unfavoured males of the latter species, even when quite close, is 

 here very much rarer, even if it exists ; but any cock near, as a 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIV., July, 1910. x 



