OF A RANCHMAN 121 



pursuer, and when the latter has been lured 

 far enough from the chicks the hen rises 

 and flies off at a humming speed. 



By the middle of August the young are 

 well enough grown to shoot, and are then 

 most delicious eating. Different coveys at 

 this time vary greatly in their behavior if 

 surprised feeding in the open. Sometimes 

 they will not permit of a very close approach, 

 and will fly off after one or two have been 

 shot; while again they will show perfect 

 indifference to the approach of man, and 

 will allow the latter to knock off the heads 

 of five or six with his rifle before the rest 

 take the alarm and fly off. They now go 

 more or less all over the open ground, but 

 are especially fond of frequenting the long 

 grass in the bottoms of the coulies and ra- 

 vines and the dense brush along the edges 

 of the creeks and in the valleys ; there they 

 will invariably be found at mid-day, and will 

 lie till they are almost trodden on before 

 rising. 



Late in the month of August one year 



