141 AT THE PAINTED WOODS 
The year following the migration of the magpie,I 
had occasion to return to my Painted Woods residence, 
from our winter camp at Lake Mandan. On nearing the 
stockade I was surprised to see four handsome blue jays 
in possession of the corn pile. They were allowed to 
remain, and with the exception of one killed by a cat, 
put in the winter around the corn, but in the spring, dis- 
appeared. These were the only jays ever seen in Painted 
Woods. 
Late in the autumn of the year following, four more 
strange birds paid my stockade residence a visit. They 
were larger than pigeons; plumage a drab grey, with a 
pecular jumping motion. They put in their whole time 
about an abandoned Indian camp, and were quite tame. 
Within afew days they too, disappeared, through I had 
reason to think, without knowing, that these birds 
were victims of watchful hawks. 
Of all the birds of these plains—and thet are of many 
kinds—the pretty little yellow breasted prairie lark was 
of the most pleasing interest to the writer. 
After the long cold winters were over, these bright 
songsters would preach themselves upon little mounds 
or hillocks and sing as for dear life, in their four sweet 
notes, singing them over and over again—a repetition 
that a passing wayfarer never tries ofhearing. Solong 
as the grass kept green these little songsters can be 
heard on the prairies,in fine summer mornings, bringing 
joy to all the disconsolate and sad hearted, by their 
presence and song. 
One morning in the latter part of February 1878, 
while out on the prairies opposite my stockade at Point 
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