Birds and All Nature, Vol. IV, No 5, November 1898

<h2><SPAN name="Bird_Courtships">Bird Courtships.</SPAN></h2> <p>&mdash;When he (the Flicker) wishes to charm his sweetheart he mounts a very small twig near her, so that his foreparts shall not be hidden as he sits upright in regular Woodpecker attitude, and he lifts his wings, spreads his tail, and begins to nod right and left as he exhibits his mustache to his charmer, and sets his jet locket first on one side of the twig and then the other. He may even go so far as to turn his head half around to show her the pretty spot on his "back hair." In doing all this he performs the most ludicrous antics, and has the silliest of expressions of face and voice, as if in losing his heart, as some one phrases it, he has lost his head also. For days after she has evidently said yes, he keeps it up to assure her of his devotion, and, while sitting crosswise on a limb, a sudden movement of hers, or even a noise made by one passing, will set him to nodding from side to side. To all this she usually responds in kind.&mdash;<i>Baskett.</i></p> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</SPAN></span></p> <table class="sp2 mc w50 p2" title="PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE." summary="PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE."> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="3"><span class="ac w100 figcenter"> <SPAN name="i_016.jpg" id="i_016.jpg"> <ANTIMG style="width:100%" src="images/i_016.jpg" width="600" height="443" alt="" /></SPAN></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.</td> <td class="x-smaller ac w40">PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE.<br/> &#8531; Life-size.</td> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">Copyright by<br/> Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />