408 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



and have been made a little more shy from an occa- 

 sional shot among them, even in this far-off locality, 

 and will not always allow a dog to approach so near 

 them ; and if a bird gets up twenty-five or thirty yards 

 away one has to wink his eye pretty quick in order 

 to stop him, for being strong, they will carry off quite 

 a weight of shot unless winged, or hit in a vital part. 



We shot mostly on the Omaha Indian reservation, 

 which, here, is quite rolling, but excellent land, covered 

 with a heavy growth of prairie grass ; and there being 

 no fences, we could drive at will in almost any direc- 

 tion. The Indians had here a few fields of corn and 

 other grains, but there were thousands of acres over 

 which we could ride and shoot at pleasure. Our wagon 

 was a comfortable two-seated spring vehicle, with a 

 park top, which would carry four to six persons and 

 our dogs, and we had a couple of ponies, somewhat 

 larger than jack rabbits, for a team, which would walk 

 or run all day, but manifested a most decided disin- 

 clination to trot. We had two dogs with us, an Irish 

 and an English setter, and our landlord had two Rus- 

 sian setters which were at our service. 



Our mode of proceeding was about this : We would 

 get an early breakfast, load up our dogs, guns, ammu- 

 nition, lunch, a big jug of water for ourselves and 

 the dogs, and point the ponies for the Indian reserva- 

 tion, when a ride of a little more than a mile would 

 bring us to good shooting grounds. We always drove 

 to the leeward of the field over which we designed 

 to shoot. Then we would get out, leave Miss S. to 



