830, and again, in 1841,
was attorney-general for Ireland. In 1842 he became master of the rolls
in Ireland, in 1846 chief-justice of the queen's bench, and in 1852 (and
again in 1866) lord chancellor of Ireland. In 1856 he was made a lord
justice of appeal in Ireland. He is remembered as having prosecuted
O'Connell and presided at the trial of Smith O'Brien. He died on the
17th of September 1867.

BLACKCOCK (_Tetrao tetrix_), the English name given to a bird of the
family _Tetraonidae_ or grouse, the female of which is known as the grey
hen and the young as poults. In size and plumage the two sexes offer a
striking contrast, the male weighing about 4 lb., its plumage for the
most part of a rich glossy black shot with blue and purple, the lateral
tail feathers curved outwards so as to form, when raised, a fan-like
crescent, and the eyebrows destitute of feathers and of a bright
vermilion red. The female, on the other hand, weighs only 2 lb., its
plumage is of a russet brown colour irregularly barred with black, and
its tail feathers are but slightly forked. The males are polygamous, and
during autumn and winter associate together, feeding in flocks apart
from the females; but with the approach of spring they separate, each
selecting a locality for itself, from which it drives off all intruders,
and where morning and evening it seeks to attract the other sex by a
display of its beautiful plumage, which at this season attains its
greatest perfection, and by a peculiar cry, which Selby describes as "a
crowing note, and another similar to the noise made by the whetting of a
scythe." The nest, composed of a few stalks of grass, is built on the
ground, usually beneath the shadow of a low bush or a tuft of tall
grass, and here the female lays from six to ten eggs of a dirty-yellow
colour speckled with dark brown. The blackcock then rejoins his male
associates, and the female is left to perform the labours of hatching
and rearing her young brood. The plumage of both sexes is at first like
that of the female, but after moulting the young males gradually assume
the more brilliant plumage of their sex. There are also many cases on
record, and specimens may be seen in the principal museums, of old
female birds assuming, to a greater or less extent, the plumage of the
male. The blackcock is very generally distributed over the highland
districts of northern and central Europe, and in some parts of Asia. It
is found on the princ