€iiap. XIII. 
LAW OF BATTLE. 
45 
Black-cock (Tetrao urog alius and T. tetrix), which are 
both polygamists, have regular appointed places, where 
during many weeks they congregate in numbers to 
fight together and to display their charms before the 
females. M. W. Kowalevsky informs me that in Russia 
he has seen the snow all bloody on the arenas where 
the Capercailzie have fought ; and the Black-cocks 
make the feathers fly in every direction,” when 
several engage in a battle royal.” The elder Brehm 
gives a curious account of the Balz, as the love-dance 
and love-song of the Black-cock is called in Germany. 
The bird utters almost continuously the most strange 
noises : he holds his tail up and spreads it out like a 
fan, he lifts up his head and neck with all the feathers 
erect, and stretches his wings from the body. Then 
he takes a few jumps in different directions, some- 
times in a circle, and presses the under part of his 
beak so hard against the ground that the chin-feathers 
are rubbed off. During these movements he beats 
his wings and turns round and round. The more 
ardent he grows the more lively he becomes, until at 
last the bird appears like a frantic creature.” At 
such times the black-cocks are so absorbed that they 
Become almost blind and deaf, but less so than the 
capercailzie : hence bird after bird may be shot on 
the same spot, or even caught by the hand. After 
performing these antics the males begin to fight : and 
the same black-cock, in order to prove his strength over 
several antagonists, will visit in the course of one morn- 
ing several Balz-places, which remain the same during 
successive years.^^ 
Brehm, ‘ Illust. Thierleben,' 1867, B. iv. s. 351. Some of the fore- 
going statements are taken from L. Lloyd, ‘ The Game Birds of 
Sweden,’ &c., 1867, p. 79. 
