Habits and Instincts of the Pairing Season. 223 



harrier or marsh hawk {Glrcus hudsonius) endeavours to 

 win the admiration of the hen bird by a number of extra- 

 ordinary aerial evolutions. Sometimes he soars to a great 

 height, then falls straight downwards nearly to the ground, 

 turning several somersaults during the descent, and utter- 

 ing at the same time a reiterated screeching." 



Let us now txirn to the dance. In an article on " The 

 Lives and Loves of North American Birds," * in which 

 Mr. John Worth notices and interprets Major Charles 

 Bendire's "Life-histories of North American Birdsj" there 

 is a graphic description of the dance as it is performed 

 by prairie chickens, or sharp-tailed grouse. The birds 

 in companies of from six to twenty individuals assemble 

 on some hillock or knoll, fifty to a hundred feet across, 

 the "floor" being worn and beaten smooth by years of 

 tramping. After remaining for a while inactive, " one of 

 the cocks," we are told, "lowers his head, spreads out his 

 wings nearly horizontally, and his tail perpendicularly, 

 distends his air-sacs and erects his feathers, then rushes 

 across the floor, taking the shortest of steps, but stamping 

 his feet so hard and so rapidly, that the sound is like that 

 of the kettle-drum ; and at the same time he utters a kind 

 of bubbling crow, which seems to rise from his air-sacs, 

 beats the air with his wings, and vibrates his tail so that 

 he produces a loud rustling noise, and thus becomes a 

 really astonishing spectacle. Soon after he commences 

 all the cocks join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, 

 crowing, and dancing furiously; louder and louder the 

 noise, faster and faster the dance becomes, until at last 

 they madly whirl about, leaping over each other in their 

 excitement." 



Our second example shall be taken from Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson's delightful chapter on "Music and Dancing in 



* Nineteenth Century, April, 1893, vol. xxxiii. p. 594. 



