ON THE CATTLE RANGES. 85 



cries of the great four-footed beasts ; the 

 rhythmic pealing of a bull-elk's challenge ; 

 and that most sinister and mournful sound, 

 ever fraught with foreboding of murder and 

 rapine, the long-drawn baying of the gray wolf. 



Indeed, save to the trained ear most mere 

 bird songs are not very noticeable. The 

 ordinary wilderness dweller, whether hunter 

 orcowboy, scarcely heeds them ; and in fact 

 knows but little of the smaller birds. If a bird 

 has some conspicuous peculiarity of look or 

 habit he will notice its existence; but not 

 otherwise. He knows a good deal about 

 magpies, whiskey jacks, or water ousels ; but 

 nothing whatever concerning the thrushes, 

 finches, and warblers. 



It is the same with mammals. The prairie- 

 dogs he cannot help noticing. With the big 

 pack-rats also he is well acquainted ; for they 

 are handsome, with soft gray fur, large eyes, 

 and bushy tails ; and, moreover, no one can 

 avoid remarking their extraordinary habit of 

 carrying to their burrows everything bright, 

 useless, and portable, from an empty cartridge 

 case to a skinning knife. But he knows 

 nothing of mice, shrews, pocket gophers, or 

 weasels ; and but little even of some larger 

 mammals with very marked characteristics. 

 Thus I have met but one or two plainsmen 

 who knew anything of the curious plains fer- 

 ret, that rather rare weasel-like animal, which 

 plays the same part on the plains that the 

 mink does by the edges of all our streams and 

 brooks, and the tree-loving sable in the cold 

 northern forests. The ferret makes its home 

 in burrows, and by preference goes abroad at 



