590 



The Outer's Book 



while the black below, on the fore-chest, is 

 replaced by speckled gray. In her, too, the 

 air-sacs are rudimentary, and 'none of the 

 neck-feathers are peculiar. In fact, while in 

 general her plumage is like that of the male, 

 it is nevertheless more subdued, the shorter 

 and softer feathers tapering more rapidly. 



I have published the osteology of the adults, 

 pullets and chicks of this species from speci- 

 mens collected by myself. The pullets, in 

 September, are much like the female in 

 plumage, and their hunting is not to be 

 despised as they are excellent table-fowls. 

 The adults have their flesh too powerfully 

 impregnated with the taste of the leaves 

 and buds of the artemisia they feed upon as 

 a part of their diet to be pronounced good 

 eating. It goes pretty well, however, when 

 one is very hungry and has not seen any 

 fresh meat for a long time, particularly if the 

 hunter will take the pains to "draw" the 

 bird as soon as shot. 



The digestive tract of Centrocercus is 

 worthy of a more careful and complete 



anatomical description than it has h retofore 

 received. It is quite different from what we 

 find in the other genera. Years ago, J lugway 

 pointed out this fact as follows: "A peculi- 

 arity of this species, which I have not seen 

 noticed, is that its stomach, instead of being 

 hard and very muscular as in other Gdlinacea 

 is soft and membraneous, like that of the 

 birds of prey. This was first told me by 

 hunters in Nevada, and I afterward satisfied 

 myself of the truth of their statement that 

 the sage hen "has no gizzard," by dissecting 

 a sufficient number of individuals." (Am. 

 Nat. VIII., 1874). 



This fact I have demonstrated a number 

 of times for my own satisfaction, the first 

 dissection of the kind being upon an unusu- 

 ally large male bird, which I opened with a 

 hunting-knife on the pommel of my saddle, 

 while riding after Indians in 1879 in Wyoming, 

 and attached as surgeon to a large military 

 outfit in the field. It surely was a case of 

 pursuing the study of avian anatomy under 

 peculiar circumstances. 



An Unorthodox Bear Story 



By PAUL E. TRIEM 



[D I ever hunt bears?" 

 old man Browning re- 

 peated. "Did you ever 

 hunt earthquakes?" 



Mr. Todd admitted 

 that he never had. 



"Well, it'd be just as 

 safe as bear hunting, and 

 there'd be more amuse- 

 ment in it, to my way of thinking," the old 

 man assured him. 



"But your nephew?" Mr. Todd suggested. 



"I'm not responsible for any of Charlie's 



foolishness," Mr. Browning said. Then 



catching a look of disappointment on Mr. 



Todd's face, the old man relented a little. 



"I suppose you're looking for information 

 about bears, and came to me because you 

 couldn't get Charlie to talk?" he queried. 



Mr. Todd admitted that he found the 

 younger Browning rather uncommunica- 

 tive. 



"Well," Mr. Browning said, "I had a 

 misunderstanding with a bear the first year 



after I came to live with Charlie that shows 

 how near a man can come to playing second 

 fiddle in a bear fight and still get out alive; 

 as that seems to be the main part of every 

 bear story I ever heard, it'll probably answer 

 as well as if I'd gone out for the very purpose 

 of getting into trouble." 



The old man made this remark tentatively; 

 apparently he was not sure that Mr Todd 

 would care to hear a bear story that savored 

 of the unorthodox. 



"The bear's the thing I'm interested in," 

 Mr. Todd assured him. "I don't care 

 whether you hunted him or whether he 

 hunted you." 



"Thank you," the old man said grimly. 

 "I cared considerable at the time, but I'm 

 getting to look at it the same as you do. As 

 I said, it was the first year after I came west; 

 I hadn't learned to shoot didn't care much 

 for meat, anyhow but I could fish and I'd 

 pretty well caught the knack of spearing 

 salmon." 



