CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 RANCHING IN THE BAD LANDS. 



The northern cattle plains Stock-raising Cowboys, their dress and character 

 My ranches in the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri Indoor amusements 

 Books Pack-rats Birds Ranch life The round-up Indians Ephemeral 

 nature of ranch life Foes of the stockmen Wolves, their ravages Fighting 

 with dogs Cougar My brother kills one One killed by blood-hounds The 

 chase one of the chief pleasures of ranch life Hunters and cowboys 

 Weapons Dress Hunting-horses Target-shooting and game-shooting . 1 



CHAPTER II. 

 WATER-FOWL. 



Stalking wild geese with rifle Another goose killed in early morning Snow- 

 goose shot with rifle from beaver meadow Description of plains beaver Its 

 rapid extinction Ducks Not plenty on cattle plains Teal Duck-shooting 

 in course of wagon trip to eastward Mallards and wild geese in cornfields 

 Eagle and ducks Curlews Noisiness and curiosity Grass plover Skunks . 43 



CHAPTER III. 

 THE GROUSE OF THE NORTHERN CATTLE PLAINS. 



Rifle and shot-gun Sharp-tailed prairie fowl Not of ten regularly pursued Killed 

 for pot Booming in spring Their young A day after them with shot-gun in 

 August At that time easy to kill Change of habits in fall Increased wari- 

 ness Shooting in snow-storm from edge of canyon Killing them with rifle in 

 early morning Trip after them made by my brother and myself Sage- 

 fowl The grouse of the desert Habits Good food Shooting them Jack- 

 rabbit An account of a trip made by my brother, in Texas, after wild 

 turkey Shooting them from the roosts Coursing them with greyhounds . 66 



CHAPTER IV. 

 THE DEER OF THE RIVER BOTTOMS. 



The White-tail deer best known of American large game The most difficult to 

 exterminate A buck killed in light snow about Christmas-time The species 



