THE PRAIRIE HEN. 149 



wake. But any one unfortunate enough under such 

 circumstances to be surprised on foot would have little 

 chance of escaping the suffocating fumes and stifling 

 heat, which, almost insupportable even at the distance 

 of half a mile, close in with fearful quickness. These 

 conflagrations must at dark be spectacles grand beyond 

 description; for the burning plains of South Africa 

 (on which I have many a time gazed far into the 

 night) are said to convey but a faint idea of their 

 grandeur. 



The season for Prairie-hen shooting commences pro- 

 perly speaking on the 20th of August, though a bar- 

 barous and destructive practice exists among Yankee 

 shooters of killing the half-grown birds or "chickens" 

 earlier, because they are easier to shoot than when 

 stronger on the wing. 



Good dogs are, as in all other shooting, of course 

 necessary, and pointers will on some accounts be found 

 preferable to setters. Among other advantages, they 

 endure thirst better, or more probably experience it in 

 a less degree, and this on the prairie is a matter of some 

 importance, seeing that it is necessary to carry every 

 drop of water that may be required. Audubon, who 

 was a sportsman as well as a naturalist, prefers setters, 

 giving as his reason that the birds do not stand so well 

 to the former. A newly arrived dog from "the old 



