Sketches of Montana. 



21 7 



ing near the top of an old dead stub, stood 

 there for a while as if waiting to be ad- 

 mired. He was handsome enough to be 

 looked at, with his glossy black back re- 

 lieved by white shoulder knots and his 

 satin-bound cap of red. A jolly fellow, as 

 energetic as could be while at work, but 

 with a liking for frequent intervals of rest. 

 He would hammer away at the wood as if 

 his life depended on it, making the chips 

 fly this way and that, but when he had 

 secured the grub that his keen ear told him 

 was concealed there, and had swallowed it, 

 he would sit quite still for some moments 

 as if meditating on its excellent flavor. A 

 sudden movement of the gray jays, which 

 still loitered about in the hope of being 

 able to steal something more, would some- 

 times alarm this gentleman, and cause him 

 to dodge round to the other side of the 

 stub with a little shriek of alarm, but he 

 would at once peer out from behind it 

 again, and finding that his fears were 

 groundless, would go to work again. 



Two rather distant cousins of his also 

 made their appearance. Banded three- 

 toed woodpeckers they were, somewhat 

 more modestly clad in black and white, 

 with yellow silken caps. They worked 

 more on the trunks of the higher trees 

 and their larger limbs, corkscrewing about 

 them and pecking away in a modest fashion 

 as if anxious to escape observation. One 

 of them ensconced himself in a hollow in 

 the back of a great spruce, and staid there 

 for a long time, taking a siesta, it was con- 

 jectured, before starting out for his even- 

 ing meal. 



Once in a while there would be heard 

 far back in the forest a tremendous row — 

 shouts of fury, screams of passion and vol- 

 leys of oaths and bad language, as if two 

 ruffians had had a falling out and were 

 abusing each other with all their might, 

 but the listener was not greatly disturbed, 



for he knew that the racket only indicated 

 that something had occurred to ruffle the 

 temper — always somewhat uncertain — of a 

 little pine squirrel, who was now railing 

 against fate with all the power of his small 

 lungs. 



The day passed thus in a quiet fashion, 

 and Yo sat about the camp and welcomed 

 the visitors that came to it. Once or twice 

 he went out to the snowslide and looked 

 at the mountains, but the great goat whose 

 head and hide he longed for could not be 

 seen. It was not worth while to climb the 

 hills to kill another small one, for they 

 already had quite as much meat as they 

 were likely to use for some time, and the 

 mere killing of an animal is not sport. 



On one of his walks to the snowslide he 

 met two Franklin's grouse, pretty dainty 

 little birds quite ignorant of fear. He 

 looked at them and they looked at him for 

 some time, and at length one of them flew 

 up into the low branches of a spruce and 

 ruffling up its feathers and cuddling down, 

 seemed disposed to take a nap. Yo was 

 tempted to try whether it would not be 

 possible to accomplish with this bird what 

 he had seen done in Canada with its close 

 relative the spruce grouse. Those birds 

 are so gentle and unsuspicious that they 

 may be caught by means of a noose tied to 

 the end of a pole eight or ten feet long. 

 The noose is slipped over the bird's head 

 as it sits on a limb and it is dragged from 

 its perch to its captor's hand. He even 

 got out a bit of twine from his pocket, 

 made a loop in it and looked about for a 

 pole, but before he had completed his 

 preparations he thought better of it, and 

 gave over the attempt. There was really 

 so much that was appealing in the perfect 

 trust and innocence of the little creature 

 that sat sleepily there above him, that he 

 had not the heart to disturb it, much less 

 to compass its destruction. 



" Yo" in Forest and Stream^ 



