How to Attract the Birds 



expression of those quahties which we usually asso- 

 ciate with soul. "No original water- haunter or 

 ground - builder ever sang," says James Newton 

 Baskett. "Every melody is a march — a command 

 to move onward — to the ear that can truly com- 

 prehend it." 



INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS 



For the sake of advertising their location as well 

 as to please, some birds that can't sing resort to 

 curious expedients. The prairie-cock inflates two 

 loose yellow sacs on the sides of his head that stand 

 out like small oranges. From these he lets out 

 air to produce a booming sound, — powerful, pene- 

 trating like the deep tones of an organ, — which he 

 repeats again and again until the whole neighbor- 

 hood reechoes and all rival cocks have been chal- 

 lenged to boom more loudly than he. Then all 

 assemble, to fight with beak and claws, on their 

 favorite "scratching ground," in the presence of an 

 admiring circle of hens. The prize-fight among 

 birds indicates no higher plane of development than 

 among humans. We don't expect much of galli- 

 naceous fowls. 



Another of these, the ruffed grouse, usually 

 mounts a fallen log, preferably one that has served 

 many seasons as a drumming and trysting place. 

 At first slowly beating his wings, he moves faster 

 and faster, until there is only a blur where the 

 wings vibrate too rapidly for human sight to follow. 

 Without touching the log with his wings, striking 

 only the air, he beats a rolling tattoo, a deep, muf- 



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