NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 103 



in big squares and little squares, oblong pieces 

 and triangles. The effect was curious, if not 

 fine. 



" In those days there were such quantities of 

 game-birds, it was the sportsman's paradise, 

 and during the summer a great many gunners 

 from the cities came there. Prairie-chickens 

 without number, as great a nuisance as the 

 crows in the East, only we could eat them to 

 pay for the grain they ate; also geese, turkeys, 

 ducks, quail, and pigeons. Did you ever hear 

 the prairie-chickens during the spring? I 

 never felt sure spring had come to stay till, in 

 the early morning, there came the boom of the 

 chickens. Poor old hooff. It is an indescrib- 

 able sound, as if there were a thousand saying 

 the same thing and keeping perfect time. No 

 trouble then getting a child up early in the 

 morning, for it is time for hunting prairie- 

 chickens' nests. In the most unexpected 

 places in the wild grass the nests would be 

 found, with about sixteen eggs in them, looking 

 somewhat like a guinea-hen's egg. Of course 

 an omelet made out of them tasted ever so 

 much better than if made out of home-laid 

 eggs; now I should not like the taste so well, 

 probably, for there is a wild flavor to the egg, 

 as there is to the flesh of the bird. Many a 

 time I've stepped right into the nest, so well 

 was it hidden. After a prairie fire is a good 

 time to go egging, the nests being in plain 

 sight, and the eggs already roasted. I have 

 tried again and again to raise the chickens by 



