In the warm days of early spring these birds resort to their pairing ground, for unless they have been disturbed, they frequent the same place year after year. "The places selected at such seasons," says Sir W. Jardine, "are generally elevations, such as 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 game is abundant, the hill on every side repeats his humming call; he struts round the spots selected, trailing his wings, inflating his throat and neck, and puffing up the plumage of these parts and the now brilliant wattle above the eyes, raising and expanding his tail and displaying the beautifully contrasting white under tail-covers." (See engraving, p. 185.) "While the Cock is thus parading to and fro," says Mr. Lloyd, "he frequently vaults high into the air, and in doing this 'slews' his body round, so that on alighting again his head is turned in an opposite direction." This season of admiration does not continue long, the females dispersing to seek a place for their eggs, and the males retreating to the shelter of the brushwood or brakes of fern, they are then seldom seen except early in the morning and evening. The nest of the "Grey Hen," as the female is commonly called, is very simple, being merely a hollow in the ground sheltered by a low bush or tuft of grass; the eggs are from six to twelve in number, about two inches long, and of a yellowish white colour, spotted and dotted with yellowish red. The mother has the entire charge of the young, both during and after incubation, and most zealously does she defend her trust, acutely distinguishing friends from foes, as the following anecdotes from the _Zoologist_ will prove:--