AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 79 



away, and by and by I heard a peep, like the squeak of a wheel, very 

 faint. I looked up on a line near me, and there sat a baby hummer. 

 Very soon the mother flew to see what the racket was and flew so 

 quickly, and he was so nungry, and bent to meet her, that he was 

 knocked over backwards and hung head downward. But soon he 

 straightened up and looked surprised, and began to yell, but the par- 

 ents wouldn't go near him. I began to think they knocked him on pur- 

 pose, just cuffed him you know. Well after a long time he went hunt- 

 ing for himself. But I just laughed to see the antics, he did look so 

 funny. 



Minnie L. Shailer, 



Haddam, Conn. 



DANCING BIRDS, 



I wonder how many of our young readers have ever been present 

 at a Woodcock's Ball. It is generally held in April or May, at "early 

 candle light" or at dawn. The chief amusement is dancing, of course, 

 which is done by the male bird. With a loud regular call of "peent, 

 peent," he sweeps upward in great circles, going faster and faster, the 

 rapid motions ot his wings giving a whistling sound like the wind 

 rushing through sharp edged reeds, until he is about three hundred 

 feet or more above the ground. Then he plunges downward to the earth 

 again, in zigzag flight with a clear whistle, to his starting point, when 

 he again takes his wheeling upward flight. 



Another bird which strives to charm its mate through the dance is 

 the Sandhill Crane. I cannot do better than to give you the following 

 description by Goss: "Their actions and antics are ludicrous in the 

 extreme, bowing and leaping high into the air, hopping, skipping and 

 circling about with drooping wings, and croaking whoop, an almost in- 

 describable dance and din, in which the female (an exception to the 

 rule) joins, all working themselves up into a fever of excitement only 

 equalled by an Indian war dance, and like the same, it only stops when 

 the last one is exhausted." Those of you who live near New York 

 City may have seen these curious antics among the Cranes in the Cen- 

 tral Park. 



CHARADE 



My first are large birds whose homes are in marshy places, and 

 -whose food includes frogs, lizards and snakes. My second is owned 

 by every bird and presented by every tradesman to some of his cus- 

 tomers and disliked by most people- My whole is a pretty wild flower 

 -with a lavender blossom. 



