134 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME, 



birds may in some spots or at some times be found 

 tamer than usual. But such are the rare excep- 

 tion, and they will generally try the utmost 

 caution of the sportsman ; while the whooping- 

 crane is perhaps the last of all the game of 

 America, feathered or furred, that one who 

 knows him would contract to furnish a specimen 

 of within a given time. 



The mellow call of Bob White is heard no 

 more upon the piairie, and the silvery tones of 

 the upland plover die away in the far south be- 

 fore the sand-hill comes. He comes when the 

 burnished green of the mallard's head shines in 

 the prairie-slough, when the deep-toned Honk of 

 the Canada goose is heard on high, and the 

 pinnated grouse in bands of hundreds sweep for 

 miles at a single flight over the rolling expanse. 

 The best shooting is from pits on stubbles, and 

 in the great fields of corn that follow the first 

 settlement of the prairie. It is generally too 

 difficult to approach the birds, for on open plain 

 it is useless to try to crawl within range, and 

 even when they alight along some slough it is 

 quite difficult to get within sure rifle-range, even 

 under cover of slough-grass. The crane is no 



