18 BIRDS OF THE WEST 



BIRD SPORTS. 



Nearly all forms of animal life have a way of playing. You 

 have seen horses have jolly good times just for fun. Nothing is 

 prettier than to watch a family of foxes at play unless it is to watch 

 the antics of puppies and kittens. Do you think that such cheerful 

 livers as birds have no games to play at? 



I have seen sandhill cranes do a mighty pretty cake walk and 

 some very fancy jigs; and a number of tiny sandpipers did what 

 I should call a cotillion, if it were done in a ballroom by common 

 folks. 



You have no doubt seen robins play tag upon a lawn and what 

 sport a game of tag would have been to us in our boyhood days if 

 we had only had wings. Did you ever see a cat play with a mouse ? 

 Terns (often improperly called gulls) play catch with fishes. A 

 tern will carry a fish high into the air only to drop it, when sud- 

 denly another tern will catch it on the fly and go upward with it 

 only to drop it to a third tern and so on until they are weary of the 

 game. 



When a gull carries a clam to a great height and drops it, it 

 does so in order to crack the clam-shell, for, if the shell is not bro- 

 ken, the gull will carry it to a greater height the second time and 

 the third time to a still greater height. Pretty fair intelligence? 



I shall always think that the redstart turns its many somer- 

 saults just for the fun of it and I have seen one turn every min- 

 ute for half an hour apparently for the principal reason that she 

 had a spectator. 



Do you suppose that bitterns have a sense of humor ? I fear 

 not, yet they surely would inspire it within you if you should see 

 one standing for hours on one foot trying to fool the frogs into 

 the belief that he is a part of the scenery. He's an unlucky frog 

 who happens to come within the bittern's sphere of influence. 



The ruffed grouse drums upon a log with his breast and wings 

 and the woodpeckers drum with their bills upon hollow tree stumps. 

 It is no doubt a means they employ to win their brides, but it is 

 sport just the same. Young men and old men get playful too when 

 they are sparking. 



