192 BLACK GROUSE. 
the danger has passed. In the winter and the early part of 
the spring, they are more shy than at other times. They 
are fine eating. The male birds are polygamous, and after 
leaving the females and the young, keep by themselves in 
small flocks in the autumn and winter, living amicably together; 
some, however, rejoin the broods, and may be seen basking 
in the sun with them on the hill side in the middle of the 
day, but in the spring the ‘organ of combativeness’ is developed, 
and they exhibit considerable animosity towards each other, and 
may at such times be easily approached, when intent on 
battle. In these conflicts they fight in the same manner as 
the game cock, with tail raised and spread and the head 
lowered, each leaping up against his match, and striking at 
him. The winner takes possession of the homestead he has 
won, and there, no ‘Noir Fainéant,’ each morning and evening 
he gallantly struts, trailing his wings over the ground, and 
with outspread tail, throat puffed out, and the briliant wattle 
swelled, both challenges with his harsh note the admiration 
of the females, and bids defiance to all comers. 
They are restless and wild before rain. Both birds endeavour 
to draw away intruders from the brood, and the hen is the 
first to rise after running some way off, and then in an 
apparently disabled manner. At the beginning of the season 
they lie very close, so as often to allow themselves to be 
taken with the hand, but later on they go in packs, and 
become very wild; sometimes hundreds assemble together. It 
has been attempted to domesticate them, but without success. 
They fly in a heavy manner, and in a direct line, at a 
tolerably fast rate, and can on occasion proceed to a consi- 
derable distance. Their proper station is on the ground, 
where they walk about nimbly enough, and also roost at 
night, but they can perch adroitly on the branches of trees, 
and move about among them. ‘They may often be seen in 
spring on the top of a low wall. 
They feed on juniper berries, bilberries, blaeberries, cran- 
berries, whortle berries, crow berries, and other mountain 
fruits throughout the summer, as also on the fresh twigs of 
heather, ling, and other shrubs; in the spring on the tops 
of the cotton grass, willow catkins, grasses, rushes, heath- 
sedge, and buds of trees, the alder, the willow, and others; 
and in the winter on soft twigs of all kinds, including fir, 
the leaves of the turnip and rape, and even, Sir William 
Jardine says, on fern. They will scratch away the snow to 
