104 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



bluff in front of them, and, it being still early in 

 the season, they labored heavily as they left the 

 ground. I fired just as they topped the bluff, and 

 as they were so close and large, and were going so 

 slowly, I was able to knock over eight birds, hardly 

 moving from my place during the entire time. On 

 our way back we ran into another covey, a much 

 smaller one, on the side of another creek ; of these I 

 got a couple; and I got another out of still a third 

 covey, which we found out in the open, but of which 

 the birds all rose and made off together. We car- 

 ried eleven birds back, most of them joung and ten- 

 der, and all of them good eating. 



In shooting grouse we sometimes ran across rab- 

 bits. There are two kinds of these. One is the little 

 cottontail, almost precisely similar in appearance to 

 the common gray rabbit of the Eastern woods. It 

 abounds in all the patches of dense cover along the 

 river bottoms and in the larger creeks, and can be 

 quite easily shot at all times, but especially when 

 there is any snow on the ground. It is eatable but 

 hardly ever killed except to poison and throw out 

 as bait for the wolves. 



The other kind is the great jack-rabbit. This is 

 a characteristic animal of the plains ; quite as much 

 so as the antelope or prairie dog. It is not very 

 abundant, but is found everywhere over the open 

 ground, both on the prairie and those river bottoms 

 which are not wooded, and in the more open valleys 

 and along the gentle slopes of the Bad Lands. 

 Sometimes it keeps to the patches of sage brush, and 



