64 Waterfowl. 



informed of the cause of the shot, cursed the Scotchman 

 up hill and down dale for having so ne?rlv brought dire 

 confusion on them all. The latter took the abuse very 

 philosophically, merely remarking : " I 'm glad a did na 

 kill him mysel' ; he seemed such a dacent wee beastie." 

 The sequel proved that neither the skunk nor Sandy had 

 learned any wisdom by the encounter, for half an hour 

 later the " dacent wee beastie " came back, and this time 

 Sandy fired at him with fatal effect. Of course the re- 

 sult was a frantic rush of all hands from the hut, Sandy 

 exclaiming with late but sincere repentance : " A did na 

 ken 't wad cause such a tragadee." 



Besides curlew and plover there are at times, especially 

 during the migrations, a number of species of other waders 

 to be found along the streams and pools in the cattle 

 region. Yellowlegs, yelper, willet, marlin, dough bird, 

 stilt, and avocet are often common, but they do not begin 

 to be as plentiful as they are in the more fertile lands to 

 the eastward, and the ranchmen never shoot at them or 

 follow them as game birds. 



A more curious bird than any of these is the plains 

 plover, which avoids the water and seems to prefer the 

 barren plateaus and almost desert-like reaches of sage-brush 

 and alkali. Plains plovers are pretty birds, and not at all 

 shy. In fall they are fat and good eating, but they are 

 not plentiful enough to be worth going after. Sometimes 

 they are to be seen in the most seemingly unlikely places 

 for a wader to be. Last spring one pair nested in a bro- 

 ken piece of Bad Lands near my ranch, where the ground 

 is riven and twisted into abrupt, steep crests and deep 



