BLACK GROUSE. 
87 
above the eyes, raising and expanding the tail, and 
displaying the beautifully contrasting white under 
tail-covers ; he is soon heard by the females, who 
crowd around their lord and master. This season of 
admiration does not continue long ; the females dis- 
perse to seek proper situations for depositing their 
eggs, while the males, losing their feeling for love 
and fighting, reassemble in small parties, and seek 
the shelter of the brush and fem beds to complete a 
new moult, and are seldom seen, except early in the 
morning or at evening, when they exhibit a degree 
of timidity, the very reverse of their former boldness 
and vigilance. The old males continue separate 
until winter, and afterwards seem to display an in- 
clination to flock by themselves ; but in many 
cases they join with the young broods, and all re- 
sort, morning and evening, to some favourite feeding 
grounds, spending the middle part of the day in rest, 
or in basking, pluming, or sporting upon some sunny 
hill side. Upon the females devolve the whole duties 
of rearing and protecting the young; the nest is 
made upon the ground, not far from water, and 
the young, when hatched, are conveyed to the low 
rushy hollows, where there is abundance of food, 
supplied by the tender seeds of the rushes and 
alpine grasses. The young arc seldom full grown 
before the 1st of September; and even, at this 
season, if they have been undisturbed previously, 
they will almost suffer themselves to be lifted from 
before the pointers. During summer the general 
food is the seeds of the various grasses, and the 
