244 SPORT INDEED 



coyote, but he got out of danger in a few minutes. 

 Then a monster bird came flapping leisurely around 

 the shore. It was a pelican, and, as if to chaff us into 

 wasting our shells, he flapped serenely by in front of 

 each gunner several times, each time getting the con- 

 tents of shells from No. 5 down to buckshot. He was 

 hit from every angle, some twenty-five shells in all 

 having been fired at him. We could hear the shot 

 strike and then drop into the water, and yet Mr. 

 Pelican " winked the other eye " and will continue to 

 wink it at anything less than a rifle. 



With our game belts loaded to their fullest capacity 

 (mine must have weighed forty pounds, although it 

 felt like forty tons), we started back, killing more 

 prairie-chickens on the road, and arriving in time for 

 dinner (five o'clock), having been out just twelve 

 hours. What exhilaration was crowded into those 

 twelve hours ! One who has never been out in this rari- 

 fied and highly-electric atmosphere cannot conceive the 

 joys of such a hunt on such a day. The sun was 

 pleasantly warm, its rays being tempered with a cool 

 wind that waved the tall grass and rippled the water 

 so that it shone in the distance like burnished silver. 

 Along the edge of the sloughs a row of willows bent 

 their lithe limbs to the breeze and gave a graceful nod 

 to each whiff as it passed on its way laden with the 

 breath of prairie flowers. Surely, such Paradisal sur- 

 roundings should satisfy any man's fancy, whether it 



