242 GAME. 



The young grow very rapidly ; but it is some months, 

 and they are almost if not quite fully grown, before their 

 wings can lift their heavy bodies from the ground. For 

 a month or more the young are covered with a yellowish 

 down. From the time they commence feathering they 

 are delicious food, and their hunting is good sport, though 

 there is, of course, no wing shooting. 



The mallard duck also breeds in great numbers on 

 the beaver-dammed or sedgy streams of the plains, as 

 far south as the Arkansas. Its habits are those of the 

 common puddle duck, except that they pair. 



The teal also pairs, but prefers to make its nest in the 

 bottom lands adjoining such swift-running streams as the 

 Arkansas or Platte. The young of both these birds are 

 fine eating, and in August and early September, being 

 then unable to fly, are easily bagged. 



In the early spring, soon after the 1st of May, the 

 plains are enlivened with immense flocks of curlew. 

 These soon break up into pairs, and, scattering over the 

 high, dry prairie, commence making preparations for 

 'raising' a family. The nest is a most crude affair, a 

 mere circular depression of an inch or two hollowed in 

 the ground. It is scarcely lined, a few feathers and a 

 very scanty supply of grass alone keeping the eggs from 

 the soil. Scarce an effort at concealment is made, the 

 bird evidently relying for its safety upon its sober, un- 

 attractive light brown, hardly distinguishable from the 

 brown earth and grass. 



When the female is sitting, a person may pass within 

 a few feet without disturbing her. She has the habit, 

 common to many birds, of pretending to be wounded 

 when disturbed, and I have several times been startled to 

 see a large bird fluttering and tumbling along the ground 

 from almost under my feet. She lays from eight to ten 

 eggs. They are about the size of those of a guinea fowl, 

 but more nearly oval in shape. The young brood leaves 

 the nest in a day or two, and follows the mother bird. 



