EARLY DAY STORIES. 215 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

 Hunting Stories — Hunting Without a Gun. 



I cannot tell which affords the greater pleasure, hunt- 

 ing with or without a gun. It has fallen to my lot to do 

 quite a bit of both kinds. My hunting without a gun has 

 been done either for the purpose of capturing young animals, 

 or to watch the wild animals in their native haunts for the 

 purpose of studying their habits. This country in the early 

 days afforded ample opportunity to those disposed to hunt 

 without a gun for either of the above purposes. When one 

 hunts for the purpose of studying the habits of the wild ani- 

 mals, if he is careful in his observations, he will be pretty 

 apt to have some of his early opinions that were formed from 

 reading works of travel, or even works on natural history 

 completely upset, as the result of what he learns from actual 

 personal observation. 



For example: Sixty years ago almost every man and 

 woman who was in the habit of reading, believed that the 

 prairie dogs, rattlesnakes and burrowing owls all lived 

 amicably together as one family in the same burrow. Some 

 people even today believe it, because perhaps, that they have 

 read it in some old book, although the silly idea has been 

 long since disproved by careful investigation. Many years 

 ago I believed it myself, because I had r^ad it many times, 

 and supposed it must be so, of course. I have found out, 

 that the rattlesnakes occupy only the old deserted portions 

 of the prairie dog towns — the owls occupy other deserted 

 parts, and the prairie dogs live by themselves in their own 

 community. After a time the prairie dogs ruin and kill out 

 the grass within the limits of their villages, making it nec- 

 essary to spread out in other directions. I have seen de- 

 serted parts of a prairie dog town that covered hundreds of 



