10 THE AUDUBON BU DUD Ear 
The day was well done when I started home. A sparrow hawk came 
overhead calling rapidly, circled and settled in a distant tree. I was over- 
joyed at seeing a pair of mourning doves sitting side by side on a branch 
above me. They were silent as they sat there, no doubt happy in the 
presence of each other. I entered a dense thicket and suddenly a woodcock 
zig-zagged out of the moist leaves and whisked away. Farther on the 
performance was repeated by another. Then I saw both of them rising in 
great spirals, higher and higher. Their wings were beaten rapidly and 
they looked like large bats. Through the glasses I discerned their long 
slim bills. One had risen, whistling, almost beyond my sight, when suddenly 
he flew straight, then erratically, then nosed into a dive. Down, down he 
came almost perpendicularly, making a long spiral at a terrific speed. As 
he neared the ground he levelled off and flew about five feet high into a 
covert. The other one soon repeated the performance. This was the grand 
finale to my outing. It was dark now, and the occasional call of an excited 
robin came to me over the rushing of the water as I stood on the trestle 
and bade farewell to the woods until another day. Hoping in vain to the 
last to catch a glimpse of a screech owl, I reluctantly left the woods. 
fA ff ff 
Our Lectures 
MEMBERS AND friends of our Society had the pleasure of listening to a talk 
by Mr. Wesley F. Kubichek, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Department 
of the Interior, on the evening of January 15, his subject being ‘Wildlife 
at Home.” He related the story of the Upper Souris River and its reclama- 
tion for wildlife, illustrating this and all his topics with very fine color 
movies taken by himself, assisted quite capably by Mrs. Kubichek. Then 
followed the life story of the western grebe with their fascinating practice 
of walking upright on the water during the mating season, and other habits 
not common to the grebe family. The final section of the lecture showed 
the prairie chicken and the sharp-tailed grouse, with a comparison of their 
actions on the booming ground during the mating dance. Because of a 
heavy snow storm that day some of our members were unable to reach the 
Academy and thus missed a most worth while evening. 
Mr. E. T. Baroody, of Berwyn, one of our Board of Directors, gave a 
talk on Syria on the evening of February 16. A lecture by Mr. Murl 
Deusing, of Milwaukee, scheduled for that time was unavoidably postponed. 
Mr. Baroody showed some very fine color movies made during a visit to 
Egypt and Syria that gave a more intimate view of life there than could 
have been obtained by anyone without his family connections and personal 
knowledge of the country and its customs. We appreciate his kindness in 
helping us to avoid disappointing those whom we were unable to notify of 
the change. We hope to have Mr. Deusing with us at some later time. 
March 5, at 8:00 o’clock, we shall again welcome to the Academy of 
Sciences, where all our programs are given, Mr. Karl H. Maslowski, whose 
subject will be ‘From Seashore to Glacier.” He will take us by way of his 
