8 THE AUDUBON BU LU UD BeiaieN 
away he had either failed to catch his prey or on seeing me had dropped it 
while still in the water. 
While at Maple Lake on October 5 for the Natural History Survey day, 
an osprey, sometimes called the fish hawk, gave us a very fine exhibition of 
soaring, finally making a plunge in front of us, dropping his prey and 
returning to plunge again and fly off with a fish. It was as though it were 
a part of the program arranged for the thirty or more persons gathered 
on the shore and listening to a lecture on the fish of Maple Lake. 
Chicago, Illinois. 
ft FI ft 
Humor — Yes or Nov 
WHILE AT a dinner recently the question was raised as to whether birds 
have a sense of humor. Mr. Paul Pueschel, of Glencoe, offered the following 
observation in support of the suggestion. In his yard are two feeding plat- 
forms about fifty feet apart. As we all know, certain birds take precedence 
according to their size and prowess, and thus a blue jay will vacate when a 
red-headed woodpecker approaches. Two or three jays were filling up at 
one of the shelves when a red-head swooped down. The jays hurriedly left 
and the woodpecker, instead of landing on the shelf, soared up to the side 
of a tree and looked the situation over. The jays in the meantime had 
settled on the other shelf. The woodpecker swung down over that shelf, 
again dislodging the jays and again soaring up to a tree to see what hap- 
pened. For nearly a half-hour the red-head thus kept the jays on the move, 
never himself landing on the platform, but apparently enjoying himself by 
keeping them away. 
In an article in the Audubon Magazine by Charles and Elizabeth 
Schwartz, they describe a similar scene where marsh hawks would dive at 
prairie chickens, even to the point where one old chicken struck back at a 
hawk and plucked several feathers from his breast. They state that, 
although they have seen marsh hawks dive at prairie chickens dozens of 
times, they have never seen one attempt to strike or injure a prairie chicken. 
They feel that “heckling the birds may be a form of amusement for the 
hawks.” 
The woodpecker might possibly be only a “dog in the manger,” but 
that cannot apply to the hawks as they would not be looking for anything 
that the prairie chickens were eating. Have you anything in your experi- 
ence that indicates a sense of humor in birds? If so, let’s have it. 
ot na = 
“THERE ARE now, and always will be, many who would take the last fish, 
kill the last bird or the last deer, or cut down the last tree, if in so doing 
they could see an immediate personal gain. It is our duty as American 
citizens concerned with the national welfare and the future of this country 
to see that these groups do not prevail.”—Dr. Ira N. Gabrielson, Chief of 
the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior. 
