26 



THE MUSEUM. 



dances are also passing out of use, as 

 the Chilkat blankets of mountain goat 

 wool, robes of eagle down, and queer 

 ornaments made of feathers, fur, bird 

 bills, animal teeth, etc., and fancy 

 carved sticks and poles illumated in 

 fancy colors. 



More modern things in daily use to- 

 day are spoons made from the horn of 

 the mountain sheep and white goat 

 with elaborately carved handles of 

 different shapes. They weave beauti- 

 ful baskets from grasses and roots, 

 making rain-proof hats and serviceable 

 mats from the same material. In the 

 matter of making minature models of 

 their canoes, grave images and famous 

 toten poles, they are very expert and 

 their handiwork is much sought for. 



Late years has witnessed a rapid 

 change in the Siwash. The original 

 savage and his belongings are fast fad- 

 ing before the march of civilization to 

 give place to the coming generation 

 that wear store clothes instead of furs, 

 gets drunk on whisky instead of "hoo- 

 chinoo" and packs a six-shooter in- 

 stead of a whalebone bow. 



Geo. F. Cantwell, 



Juneau, Alaska. 



The Prairie Horned Larl^ in Ne- 

 braska. 



This species with the exception of the 

 Little Englishmen is our most abund- 

 ant resident species, although some 

 years it is not nearly so plentiful as 

 others. As south-west Nebraska is 

 very changeable in regard to winter it 

 makes a considerable amount of differ- 

 ence as to the numbers of these hardy 

 "Larks" that stay with us. Our cold- 

 est winters seem to be when this bird 

 is the most plentiful. 



The winter of '93 was a very mild 

 season there being only two hard 

 storms, and during this winter I be- 

 lieve the Prairie Horned Lark could be 

 termed very rare, but, however, the 

 next winter, '94 was one of our hard- 

 est winters, and then it was that this 

 species was with us in countless num- 

 bers. 



On the mornings of cold days that 

 winter I have seen flocks that would 

 no doubt number into the thousands, 

 but as the day would advance they 

 seemed to disband into smaller flocks 

 to feed, in the barn-yards, along road 

 sides and on stacks, but towards even- 

 ing they would band together again 

 and seem very restless, at this time 

 they were killed by the local sports- 

 men in countless numbers. One young 

 would-be-sportsman here boasts on 

 the number of fifty six that he secured 

 at one shot during February in '94. 

 But I am glad to say that now it is 

 rather going out of date to hunt for our 

 little friend. ;y. .« ,. ■ _ 



One cold March morning in '94 I 

 found five of these hardy fellows lying 

 in a straight line frozen. I could not 

 make out the cause until I had seen 

 the clothes line which was about six 

 feet high. Perhaps a large fiock had 

 gone by and these were the ones that 

 "struck" and were stuned and so froze 

 to death. Many times have I brought 

 this bird into the house half frozen and 

 starved, but after warming and a good 

 feed they were as lively as a cricket 

 and ready to join their companions in 

 a few hours. I once kept two males, 

 Tom and Jerry, for about six weeks. 

 They became very tame and would 

 come to their call. 



In April these birds are at their 

 highest .plumage, then the males are 

 singing at their best and they can be 

 seen along the roadway or on posts 

 crouched as if ready to fly, warbling 

 away, and always ending their song 

 with a chromatic run for about one 

 octave, then they give their wings to 

 flight, circle around a few times and 

 nearly always coming back to the same 

 place, if not disturbed. 



I have never known but I think 

 these birds pair off at all times during 

 the year, or that is during their nest- 

 ing season which to them is fully half 

 of the year. I have seen nests with 

 young as early as March 2d and as late 

 as July 20th, but very much earlier 

 dates have been recorded. 



