lost in the distance. You may be near his nest, but he does not deign to notice 

 you, further than to give vent to a disdainful "huuiph" in passing. 



The song of the resident water thrush is one of our choice things. The 

 bird has found the Pierian spring, tucked away somewhere among our hills — 

 in ]^Iorgan County, I think — and has tasted to good advantage. Its notes are 

 wild and ringing clear, but sweet also as honey which the wild bees have made. 

 There is a tumultuous passage in it too, which may occupy only the middle por- 

 tion or may engulf the whole. At times the singer's main force seems to be 

 expended in the opening, peals, so that it almost instantly falls back into a milder 

 cadence or bubbling twitter, in which its warbler affinities are quickly recognized. 



As to its platform the musician is not so particular. Usually a free branch 

 from ten to twenty feet high is selected, but I have seen the bird sing his best 

 song while standing knee deep in water. There is said to be also an ecstasy song 

 which lifts the bird quite clear of earth. Audubon declared the water thrush's 

 song equal to that of the English nightingale, but a somewhat less extravagant 

 claim will leave us with a keener appreciation of the bird's real merit. 



Prairie Chicken {Tuympanuckus amerkans) 



Range : Southeastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba to eastern 

 Colorado, northeastern Texas, Arkansas, western Kentucky, and Indiana. 



"The chicken" is a lover of the open prairie and as a substitute readily 

 accepted the wheat and cornfields of the early settlers, in which it was, and still is, 

 a valuable ally of agriculture. However great its value to the farmer, if we 

 are to judge from present appearances, this fine prairie grouse must soon be writ- 

 ten of in the past tense. Formerly abundant all over the Mississippi region from 

 Manitoba south ^o Louisiana and Texas," and extending as far west as Colorado, 

 today only a scant remnant of its former numbers is left, and this remnant is 

 fast dwindling imder the combined attacks of sportsmen who should know 

 better, and of gunners who neither know nor care for consequences. Ranging 

 only a short distance north of our boundaries, the prairie chicken is in the strict 

 sense of the word an American game bird, and one must go far to find a finer. 

 Being non-migratory, it is State property, and its fate rests solely with the 

 individual States within which it resides. Considering its past abundance, the 

 fine sport its pursuit aiTord's to the legitimate sportsman, its delicacy for the table, 

 and the valuable service it renders the farmer in destroying his insect enemies, 

 the record of its treatment is a shameful one. In many States no protection what- 

 ever was given the bird till its extinction was practically assured, while in the 

 States in which adequate legislation has been enacted, open seasons, too large 

 bag limits, and inadequate enforcement of the laws have produced their inevitable 

 effect. Nothing short of a closed season for a term of years will turn the tide 

 and save this noble bird from extinction. 



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