56 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



long after sunset the previous evening, and now 

 at the first peep of day they were at it again. All 

 through April the same daily program had been 

 followed, and now at the 20th of May, not one 

 of the dancers showed symptoms of lagging. 

 For twenty-five years at least they had held their 

 spring carnival upon this knoll; and probably 

 centuries before the first prairie schooner had 

 ventured this far to the westward, uncounted 

 generations of sharp-tails had danced there. 



On closer approach, a new noise became very 

 audible — a strong, vibrant whirring like the rapid 

 beating of many wings. This was not a continu- 

 ous rumble, but rose in intermittent waves, now 

 a roll from a dozen pairs of quivering, drooping 

 wings, then quiet for a moment. Now at a hun- 

 dred yards the actions of each of the mad rev- 

 elers could be followed. With heads down, white 

 tails erect and spread, and wings adroop, they 

 bowed in pairs and circled and whirred and 

 dashed dizzily about, and " gobbled," till when I 

 came too close, they ceased their grand right and 

 left, and sank slowly upon the ground, and re- 

 mained crouched there till routed. 



This dancing of the sharp-tailed grouse, a per- 

 formance analagous to the booming of the pin- 



