322 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
performance, so admirably described by Mr. J. G. MiUais,* 
takes place at an hour when most people are in their beds ; 
which may perhaps account for the impossible yet deep- 
rooted local ideas as to the mating of this species. Richard 
BeU records an instance of a Blackcock which showed 
extraordinary devotion to a dead Greyhen. For two months 
he strutted round the remains, . . . until a circle six feet 
in diameter was ' paidled ' quite bare round the place where 
they lay."t At this season of the year the Blackcock is in 
all his glory, and with lyre-shaped tail, glossy blue-black 
plumage and flaming cheeks, presents a very different picture 
to the taiUess object kicked out of the bracken in the latter 
days of August. By October he is in better fettle again, and is 
sometimes deceived by a bright gleam or two of sunshine, to 
indulge in his spring antics. He struts about, uttering his 
burrling " (as it is called locally) cry, in full enjoyment of 
amatory recrudescence, or " pseudo-erotism "t ; and this un- 
seasonable performance is occasionaUy seen even in November 
and December. This " burrUng " note, which at a distance, 
sounds like a curling-stone travelling on keen ice, I have 
often heard uttered within a few feet of me, and may be 
syUabled " terrar-terrar-terrar-terrar-techekikeka-terarto." 
The Greyhen's nest with its seven to twelve eggs, is but 
sHght and is badly concealed on some grassy hillside ; and 
many eggs are destroyed by Rooks and Crows, which 
systematically quarter Hkely localities. My photograph 
of a Greyhen on her nest (here produced) was taken 
at Capenoch (Keir). Major W. McCall teUs me of a 
Greyhen's nest in a tree near Glencairn. "The nest, 
he writes, "was thought to be an old one of an owl. 
It was on a spruce fir tree, about twenty feet from the 
ground. The bird laid nine eggs, seven of which came 
out The nest was watched, and the day after the eggs 
were chipped it was found that two young birds had fallen 
* Game Birds, 1894, pp. 69-79. 
t My Strange Pets, p. 188. 
X Bird-Life of the Borders, 1907, p. 208. 
