98 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



was watching them. Queer if this bitter stuff 

 is all that is eaten." 



"In a lone cottonwood there were nests of blue- 

 birds, woodpeckers, wrens, and robins. Pretty 

 thick, yet peaceable as far as I saw. I had 

 thought that each pair claimed at least four 

 trees." 



"Prairie dogs act more like chipmunks than 

 dogs and look more like pigs than dogs. Who 

 could have named them dogs?" 



" Find out about that story that owls, prairie 

 dogs, and rattlers live in the same hole." 



"Coyotes seem to have more fun than any 

 other animal on the plains. They are hollering 

 around thick all night. Last night it sounded 

 like several thousand, but this morning there 

 were only two in sight." 



"I cannot hear anything mournful in the 

 barking and howling of coyotes. Sounds more 

 like a gang having a time. At times last night 

 they were signalling. One near camp started a 

 song and stopped; then another about two miles 

 off tried the same song; when he quit a third 

 who sounded a million miles away tried his 



voice." 



"The meadow lark seems sometimes to say, 

 'By the Great Gewhittaker/ He is the best 

 singer I have heard on the plains." 



"To-day saw a prairie-dog town that was a 



