ioo Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



best-sheltered hollows until the ushering in of the 

 springtime. 



In the early part of the season the young, and 

 indeed their parents also, are tame and unsuspi 

 cious to the very verge of stupidity, and at this time 

 are often known by the name of &quot;fool-hens&quot; among 

 the frontiersmen. They grow shyer as the season 

 advances, and after the first of October are diffi 

 cult to approach, but even then are rarely as wild 

 as the sharp-tails. 



It is commonly believed that the flesh of the 

 sage fowl is uneatable, but this is very far from 

 being the truth; on the contrary, it is excellent 

 eating in August and September, when grasshop 

 pers constitute their chief food, and, if the birds 

 are drawn as soon as shot, is generally perfectly 

 palatable at other seasons of the year. The first 

 time I happened to find this out was in the course 

 of a trip taken with one of my foremen as a com 

 panion through the arid plains to the westward of 

 the Little Missouri. We had been gone for two 

 or three days and camped by a mud hole, which 

 was almost dry, what water it still held being al 

 most as thick as treacle. Our luxuries being lim 

 ited, I bethought me of a sage cock which I had 

 shot during the day and had hung to the saddle. I 

 had drawn it as soon as it was picked up, and I 

 made up my mind to try how it tasted. A good 

 deal to our surprise, the meat, though dark and 

 coarse-grained, proved perfectly well flavored, and 

 was quite as good as wild-goose, which it much 



