ON THE PRAIRIE 177 



the place well in his mind; on one occasion 

 when I feared that somebody might meddle 

 with my horse, I hid him so successfully that 

 I spent the better part of a day in finding 

 him. 



Keeping in mind the above given rules, 

 when I left camp the morning after the 

 breaking up of the band of cows and qalves, 

 I hunted up-stream, and across and through 

 the wooded spurs dividing the little brooks 

 that formed its head waters. No game was 

 encountered, except some blue grouse, which 

 I saw when near camp on my return, and 

 shot for the pot. These blue grouse are the 

 largest species found in America, except the 

 sage fowl. They are exclusively birds of 

 the deep mountain forests, and in their man- 

 ners remind one of the spruce grouse of the 

 Northeastern woods, being almost equally 

 tame. When alarmed, they fly at once into 

 a tree, and several can often be shot before 

 the remainder take fright and are off. On 

 this trip we killed a good many, shooting 

 off their heads with our rifles. They formed 



