THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN 



reversal of the ordinary manner of incuba- 

 tion. It becomes necessary to keep eggs 

 cool rather than warm. One hot, stifling 

 spring in the Little Antelope I had occa- 

 sion to pass and repass frequently the nest 

 of a pair of meadowlarks, located unhap- 

 pily in the shelter of a very slender weed. 

 I never caught them sitting except near 

 night, but at midday they stood, or drooped 

 above it, half fainting with pitifully parted 

 bills, between their treasure and the sun. 

 Sometimes both of them together with 

 wings spread and half lifted continued a 

 spot of shade in a temperature that con- 

 strained me at last in a fellow feeling to 

 spare them a bit of canvas for permanent 

 shelter. There was a fence in that country 

 shutting in a cattle range, and along its 

 fifteen miles of posts one could be sure 

 of finding a bird or two in every strip of 

 15 



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