High on a Pennine moor in April at dawn. This is where the action is, the action Matt Ridley returns to chapter by chapter. He may call himself a “voyeur in thermals” but he is a brilliant observer, up and alert at silly o’clock, watching the shenanigans of a black grouse lek.
In a “lek”, the males of certain species gather throughout the breeding season to display themselves in their extravagant finery. Black grouse strut and jump and gurgle. They cock their white tail feathers, arranged “like a chrysanthemum” and flaunt the red combs on their heads. On an otherwise unremarkable patch of moorland, the display goes on for hours. A lek can contain above 20 males, each in his allotted space. The birds sneeze, a sound like “a can of lager being opened”. There is a lot of “koo-rooing”. Sometimes they fight among themselves. And then in fly the females, a few at a time, brown and dowdy – but choosy. They land at the side to watch, which causes a crescendo of bowing and jumping and flaunting of feathers.
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