NUPTIAL HABITS OF THE BLACKCOCK. 



413 



disposition than they were, either the day before yesterday or 

 any morning since I came, before it, nor is it likely that they 

 were more forward before I came, since it is evident now, as I 

 feared, and as is confirmed by Jacobsen, that I have come too 

 early. Were it not for my oversleeping myself yesterday, I 

 might almost say positively that this has been the first appear- 

 ance of the hen upon the scene ; yet, even now, only one has 

 actually come down into the arena. In all, perhaps, some half 

 a dozen cock birds entered it, but never all at the same time — 

 four, I think, was the limit, exclusive of the one hen. When 

 one or other of the cocks advanced towards another, to fight— 

 or, at any rate, with this thought in its mind— it would make a 

 sort of elastic quick step — hardly or only just a run — but not 

 those remarkable leaps into the air, even as I have seen them 

 made here, much less as I have in Norway (only, however, as I 

 have before said, on one occasion). The war-dance — to call it 

 so, for convenience sake — seems a special feature, which, as yet, 

 has hardly come into play. I cannot say, as yet, therefore, 

 whether it has more to do with fighting or courting. 



(To be continued.) 



