THE COMMON BLACK GROUSE. 177 
quislied, the noble full-dressed blackcock takes his 
stand, commencing at first dawn ; and where the game 
is abundant, the hill on every side repeats the muiTnur 
ing call, almost before the utterers can be distin- 
guished. They strut around the spot selected, trailing 
their wings, inflating the throat and neck, and puffing 
up the plumage of those parts, and the now brilliant 
wattle above the eyes, raising and expanding their tail, 
displaying the beautifully contrasting white under- 
covers, and imitating, as it were, the attitudes of a 
little turkey-cock. lie is soon heard by the females, 
who crowd around their lord and master. 
This season of admiration does not long continue ; 
the females disperse to seek proper situations for de- 
positing their eggs, while the males, losing their 
feeling for love and fighting at the same time, reas- 
semble in small parties, and seek the shelter of the 
brush and fern beds to complete a new moult, and 
are seldom seen except earlj' in the morning, being 
now the very reverse in stupidity to what they were 
formerly in vigilance. The sexes continue separate 
until the winter, when the old males join with the 
young broods, and all resort, morning and evening, 
to some favourite feeding grounds, spending the 
middle of the day in basking, pluming, or sport- 
ing upon some sunny hillside. Upon the females 
devolve the whole duties of rearing and protecting 
the young. The nest is made on the ground like 
that of the other grouse, and when hatched the 
young are conveyed to the low rushy hollows, where 
VOL. Till. j[ 
