NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 263 



hen's choice of himself, and which are so frequent and, appa- 

 rently, so successful that, as said before, one wonders how the 

 work of generation can go on. That it does, however, would 

 seem to show that such success is more apparent than real. 



The most interesting and significant point in these secondary 

 sexual activities,* as one may call them, of the male Blackcock, 

 is, in my view, that they are of two distinct kinds, the formal 

 display before the female, both the object and effect of which are 

 perfectly apparent, and the totally different leaping or " dancing,' 

 which, in its most accentuated form, is a highly extraordinary 

 spectacle, but which, as far as I have been able to observe, has 

 nothing to do with courtship proper, and has no special signi- 

 ficance for the female bird. If any general conclusion can be 

 drawn from the daily routine of the meeting-ground, as illus- 

 trated by the doings of over thirty male Blackcocks, upon as 

 many mornings, then this dance or frenzy, when really deserving 

 of the name, is a rare thing to see, but every bird indulges, from 

 time to time, in a few springs and flappings of the wings — 

 making, collectively, a striking spectacle — and it is obvious that 

 a gradual increase in the number, intensity, and rate of these 

 would add, more and more, to the strangeness of the exhibition 

 till it culminated, at last, in the full access or fury, wherein the 

 bird presents an appearance and utters sounds which it is im- 

 possible to give a sufficiently vivid idea of, either with pen, 

 tongue, or pencil. The two, therefore, are the same thing in 

 different degrees of development, the first or slighter degree 

 being what is ordinarily witnessed, and the last, or extreme one, 

 exceptional. But is there any still lower platform, common to 

 the Gallince generally, or to most, or many, of them, from which 

 the few exalted leaps of the male Blackcock — or even the single 

 one only — may have sprung ? Now, when the cock crows, he 

 rears himself upwards, with a sudden jerk, stretching out his 

 neck, and standing, as it were, on tip-toe, whilst at the same 

 time he violently flaps his wings. The common Pheasant does 

 just the same thing, and so does the Blackcock also, when he 

 " chu-whais " merely, sitting in some tree in the neighbourhood 

 of the arena, t which he has not yet flown down into. 



* In analogy with the " secondary sexual characters" of Darwin. 

 f This can be well seen in Norway or Sweden, where the meetings are 

 held in open spaces in the midst of the fir-forests. 



