86 
BLACK GROUSE. 
abounding with a rank and luxuriant herbage, and 
where the glades and passes among the hills are 
clothed with natural brushwood of birch and hazel, 
willow and alder, and have a tangled bottom of 
deep fern. These afford an abundant supply of 
food, with shelter from the cold at night, and the 
scorching rays of a midsummer sun. 
The Black Cock is polygamous. In the warmer 
sunny days, at the conclusion of winter, and com- 
mencement of spring, the males, after feeding, may 
be seen arranged on some turf fence, rail, or sheep- 
fold, pluming their wings, expanding their tails, 
and practising, as it were, their love-call. If the 
weather now continues warm, the flocks soon se- 
parate, and the males select some conspicuous spots, 
from whence they endeavour to drive all rivals, 
and commence to display their arts to allure the 
females. The places selected at such seasons are 
generally elevations, the turf enclosure of a former 
sheep-fold, which has been disused, and is now 
grown over, or some of those beautiful spots of 
fresh and grassy pasture which are well known to 
the inhabitants of a pastoral district. Here, after 
perhaps many battles have been fought and rivals 
vanquished, the noble full dressed Black Cock 
takes his stand, commencing at the first dawn of 
day, and where the game is abundant, the hill on 
every side repeats the humming call ; they strut 
around the spots selected, trailing their wings, in- 
flating the throat and neck, and puffing up the 
plumage of these parts and the now brilliant wattle 
