258 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



rule, darts upon the offending one, and seizing him by the neck, 

 with his bill, drags him to the ground. When two or three 

 males are either courting the same hen, or near enough to 

 intervene, it all becomes one tumble, from which the hen 

 emerges, in sorry plight, and generally, then, flies away. Thus 

 what I have said in regard to the power and position of the 

 Eeeve does not apply equally to the hen Blackcock, but though 

 she cannot, with such ease, give effect to her choice, it must still 

 be considered as the governing factor, since each male endeavours 

 to win it, and, failing to do so, must remain a celibate. This, 

 from what I have seen, should be the fate of many Buffs— per- 

 haps the majority — and, if the numerical disparity of the sexes 

 is anything like what it appears to be, upon these courting- 

 grounds, it may be the same with the Blackcocks, even if the 

 hens are not, any more than the Reeves, confined to one husband. 

 My idea is that, in either case, a select number of the finest 

 males are, year by year, chosen — the taste of the various hens 

 often coinciding — so that the less ornate ones are gradually, as 

 it were, weeded out. 



Even more than before, I have, this morning, been struck by 

 the sudden occasional outbreaks of leaping, accompanied with 

 shrill cries — the curious " chu-whai," strained, as it were, and 

 long drawn out — which, at one and the same time, affect the 

 whole assembly of males. As this has always happened when I 

 have seen a hen come down upon the lek, it may have been 

 caused, at other times, also, by one, that I did not observe, 

 flying by, or by her cry, at some distance — perhaps, for me, out 

 of earshot. Although such a sudden, general access of violent 

 springing and crying, with short flights, in some cases, from 

 place to place, over the ground — a sort of revival-scene— is, of 

 course, a very noticeable and arresting thing, making, in its 

 entirety, quite a fine spectacle, yet there is nothing in any 

 individual performance differing from what I have before de- 

 scribed, or more nearly approaching to the extraordinary, 

 frenzied dance, of protracted duration, accompanied by re- 

 peated and varying cries, generally referred to as if it were the 

 feature of these Blackcock assemblies, but of which I have only, 

 myself, seen one instance. Between this and these mere single 

 springs, with, generally, one loud "chu-whai," there is certainly 



