NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 



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and it was only on our return, much later, that we visited the 

 lek of the Blackcocks, and, creeping up the rocky ridge bounding 

 it on one side, saw two or three of them on the ground. It was 

 the same thing as yesterday, but even poorer, since it was almost 

 over. Still there was a dance or two over the ground, more 

 particularly of one bird, but if this was intended as a challenge, 

 it was not responded to by any of the others, so that there was 

 not even the semblance of a fight. The running and jumping 

 were, each time, ushered in by a short flight, low over the 

 ground, from the place where the bird had up to then been 

 standing, and with the impetus of this, as it were, the leaping 

 began. It was, I think, accompanied with some angry notes, 

 but if so, they were hardly to be heard, so that the vocal effect 

 produced by the bird I saw in Norway, which hissed and 

 spluttered like an angry cat, was wholly wanting, and the dance 

 itself not comparable in intensity. After a little of this the bird 

 flew into one of the surrounding fir-trees, where it sat making 

 the rough yet musical notes which are as characteristic of these 

 northern fir-forests as is the Wood -Pigeon's cooing of our own 

 woods. It then flew down again, and continued its ground per- 

 formances for some time longer, and, when it next left, was 

 accompanied by another bird, the two flying from one tree to 

 another, and settling, at length, in closely adjoining ones, where 

 they whirbled at one another. In the display of the Blackcock 

 some of the white feathers of the tail are seen above the black 

 ones, even when the bird stands fronting one. There are also 

 two white spots, violently conspicuous, on each shoulder, or 

 thereabouts. 



What part, if any, is played in all this by the hen bird ? As 

 yet I have not seen one anywhere, though probably, had any 

 been about in the open, my glasses would have searched them 

 out. This, however, is quite in keeping with the nuptial doings 

 of the Buff. She has no doubt yet to make her entry into the 

 drama. 



Though unsuccessful in seeing what I wanted to, with the 

 Capercailzies, this morning, yet I had a good view, through the 

 glasses, of one, a hen bird sitting on the very top of a fir-tree, 

 which may be the accustomed perch chosen. The Blackcocks 



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