Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/93

Rh in the life of the Black Grouse, a bird which has always excited the curiosity of naturalists on account of the special meeting places to which both sexes resort in the spring. Mr Edmund Selous watched these birds in Scandinavia, where he kept a daily record at one of the meeting places. In various passages he refers to the appropriation of particular positions by particular males, and concludes thus: " It would seem from this that, like the Ruffs, each male Blackcock has its particular domain on the assembly ground, though the size of this is in proportion to the much greater space of the whole. On the other mornings, too, the same birds, as I now make no doubt they are, have flown down into approximately the same areas."

The cliff-breeding species—Guillemots, Razorbills, and Puffins—are difficult to investigate because individuals vary so little, and the sexes resemble one another so closely; yet, despite these difficulties, we can gain some idea of the general purport of their activities. But when the ledges are crowded and the air is filled with countless multitudes, how is it possible to keep a single bird in view for a sufficient length of time to Understand its routine? The difficulty is not an insuperable one. The flights, undertaken seemingly for no particular purpose, are often of short duration and are completed before the strain of observation becomes too great; moreover an individual sometimes possesses a special mark or characteristic which serves to