BIRD COURTSHIPS.--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.--_Baskett._ [Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 1/3 Life-size. Copyright by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.] THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. In open woodlands far remote The Sharp-tails utter their cackling note, And on the wild prairie ground Their simple nest and eggs are found. Long years agone, in countless pairs They courted, danced, and "put on airs," But hunters, greedy, cruel--strange! Have driven them beyond their range. C. C. M. A well-known observer, who has spent many years in the West, says that the Sharp-tailed Grouse, being a bird of the wild prairies and open woodlands, has gradually retreated westward as the settlements have advanced, and will soon be a rare bird, to be looked for only in the sand-hills and unsettled portions of the country. During the summer months this bird inhabits the open prairies, retiring in winter to the ravines and wooded lands, and when the snow is deep and the weather severe often hides and roosts beneath the snow. This sometimes proves the destruction of the birds, the entrance to the roosting-place being filled by falling snow and frozen over. The Sharp-tails feed chiefly on Grasshoppers, seeds, buds, blossoms, and berries.