Grouse of the Northern Cattle Plains 103 



of the creeks, when we went up it, one on each side, 

 at a good gait, and then crossed over to another, 

 where we repeated the operation. It was nearly 

 noon when, while going up the third creek, we ran- 

 into a covey of about fifteen sage fowl a much 

 larger covey than ordinary. They were down in the 

 bottom of the creek, which here exhibited a forma- 

 tion very common on the plains. Although now per- 

 fectly dry, every series of heavy rainfalls changed it 

 into a foaming torrent, which flowed down the val- 

 ley in sharp curves, eating away the land into per- 

 pendicular banks on the outside of each curve. Thus 

 a series of small bottoms was formed, each fronted 

 by a semicircular bluff, highest in the middle, and 

 rising perfectly sheer and straight. At the foot of 

 these bluffs, which varied from six to thirty feet in 

 height, was the bed of the stream. In many of these 

 creeks there will be a growth of small trees by the 

 stream bed, where it runs under the bluffs, and per- 

 haps pools of water will be found in such places 

 even in times of drought. But on the creek where 

 we found the sage fowl there were neither trees nor 

 water, and the little bottoms were only covered with 

 stunted sage brush. Dismounting and leaving my 

 horse with the cowboy I walked down to the edge of 

 the bottom, which was not more than thirty or forty 

 yards across. The covey retreated into the brush, 

 some of the birds crouching flat down, while the 

 others walked or ran off among the bushes. They 

 were pretty tame, and rose one at a time as I walked 

 on. They had to rise over the low, semicircular 



