SPORT AND TRAVEL 161 



fairly fresh tracks. On this day, too, we saw and 

 killed our first rattlesnake. We also sighted a prairie 

 wolf (Canis Lupus occidentalis) in the distance, and 

 came on a badger (Taxidea americana), which re- 

 treated in so leisurely a manner that after dismount- 

 ing from my horse I ran up to it without difficulty. 

 I could have killed it with a club, had I had one, 

 but did not care to shoot it, as I knew that an ex- 

 panding bullet would damage its skin very much, 

 so I allowed it to retire into a large burrow. It 

 went to ground backwards, always facing its enemy, 

 in the same manner invariably practised by the 

 South African wart hog, which, no matter how 

 hard pressed it may be, never bolts head first down 

 a hole, but always turns round and goes down back- 

 wards. 



On the following morning we killed a rattlesnake 

 close to our waggon, after having first photographed 

 it. It seemed a very lethargic kind of reptile, possi- 

 bly because the early morning air was somewhat chilly, 

 and would not move or give the warning rattle 

 although I had got my camera on the ground at a dis- 

 tance of only four feet away from it until Graham 

 stirred it up with a stick. Then it raised its head a 

 foot or so from the ground and made a somewhat 

 feeble noise with its rattle. Whilst photographing 

 the rattlesnake, I saw three sage grouse walking 

 through the brush a short distance away. One of 

 them was a splendid old cock, apparently about the 



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