£be TOarbler 



23 



actual fact, the oniy ones observed, at any time, during two summers, were 

 seen, in a straggling flock, along a weedy stage road in Crook County, in 

 September of 1905. Nevertheless, one presumes that some young are actu- 

 ally reared, at each laying, in every season. 



Enemies are both rife and abundant. The skunk and the weasel both 

 do their work; and the ground squirrel, where occurring, falls under suspic- 

 ion. Even the Magpie makes whilom forays into the sage brush; and how 

 the Magpie does love eggs: But the worst foe of all, for all the ground-and- 

 bush nesting amis of the Wyoming prairie land, is the slinking, vociferous 

 and picturesque coyote. The writer remembers a day, once, wherein, along 



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NO. 2 — DESERT HORNED LARK'S NEST ON GUMBO PLAIN, BENEATH LONE SAGE 



the softly-rounded hill-and-valley stretches of the IOI Ranch, he ran upon 

 Horned Lark nests, here and there amid the prickly pears or beside cattle 

 droppings. Near one broad, shallow valley, on gentle slopes, a pair of Cur- 

 lews were valiantly defending a homestead that had been coyote-despoiled; 

 (as proven by the long sweeps made by both parents along the very grass- 

 tops, at the human intruder; these heroic dashes waxing most frantic and 

 vocally hysterical at the spot where the rifled egg-shells were found). Be- 

 yond this valley, as I trailed nearer and nearer, in my searching, a pair of 

 coyotes were marauding, furtively, along the hill-sides, frerhaps \h&y were 



