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 "fool-hens" 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 



