84 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



fall the water rushes through the at other times dry 

 bed in a foaming torrent, and it thus cuts it down 

 into a canyon-like shape, making it a deep, winding, 

 narrow ditch, with steep sides. Along the edges of 

 this ditch were dense patches, often quite large, of 

 rose-bushes, bullberry bushes, ash, and wild cherry, 

 making almost impenetrable thickets, generally not 

 over breast high. In the bottom of the valley, along 

 the edges of the stream bed, the grass was long and 

 coarse, entirely different from the short fine bunch 

 grass a little further back, the favorite food of the 

 cattle. 



Almost as soon as I had entered the creek, in 

 walking through a small patch of brush I put up 

 an old cock, as strong a flyer as the general run of 

 October birds. Off he went, with a whirr, clucking 

 and crowing; I held the little i6-bore fully two feet 

 ahead of him, pulled the trigger, and down he came 

 into the bushes. The sharp-tails fly strongly and 

 steadily, springing into the air when they rise, and 

 then going off in a straight line, alternately sailing 

 and giving a succession of rapid wing-beats. Some- 

 times they will sail a long distance with set wings 

 before alighting, and when they are passing over- 

 head with their wings outstretched each of the sep- 

 arate wing feathers can be seen, rigid and distinct. 



Picking up and pocketing my bird I walked on, 

 and on turning round a shoulder of the bluffs saw 

 a pair of sharp-tails sitting sunning themselves on 

 the top of a bullberry bush. As soon as they saw 

 me they flew off a short distance and lit in the bed 



