FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 359 



wild cattle and horses and in the vibrating heat 

 over their backs sail the hawks, great and small; 

 these birds seem to be omnipresent on all the West- 

 ern plains where they have an inexhaustible supply 

 of small mammals on which to prey. Now and 

 then an old hen grouse with a brood of fuzzy lit- 

 tle chicks gives a warning call and the young birds 

 scatter and hide their dust-colored bodies on the 

 dust-colored ground. 



Occasionally the long, graceful form of 



A HARMLESS SNAKE, 



with its pretty yellow stripes, may be seen gliding 

 out of our way, and myriads of 



FAT GIANT CRICKETS, 



as big as the brown wood frogs of New York, 

 hop clumsily out of the horses' tracks, scolding as 

 they go. Everything is novel and strange to a 

 tenderfoot from the East; yet many things bear 

 a recognizable relationship to objects at home. 



THE MEADOW LARKS 



look like ours and one hearing them for the first 

 time would immediately pronounce the notes to be 

 those of a meadow lark. Nevertheless the West- 

 ern bird's voice is much rounder and more flute- 

 like in tone. 



THE SONG SPARROW'S DITTY 



seems to be the same, even though the bird itself 

 may differ from its Eastern brothers, but there is 

 nothing familiar, to the tenderfoot fresh from the 



