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PISHR| 



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132 



GAAfE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



is often repeated with each beat of the wings, even after 

 they have flown for some distance. The flight is mostly 

 performed in a straight Hne, except where the nature of 

 the ground makes it an impossibihty.and is swift, the bird 

 being borne along by alternate flappings and sailings. 

 When the wings are held motionless, they are much 

 curved, with the primaries sprcatl far apart toward tiic 

 tips, and turned down. If many coveys occupy similar 

 tracts of country they keep their little family parties sepa- 

 rate and distinct from each other, and if they have not 

 been much molested will permit one to approach very 

 near them without exhibiting any signs of alarm. In 

 the autumn, in such localities as the Bad Lands of the 

 Dakotas, they are in the habit of passing much of their 

 time in the "coulees" or wooded ravines, into which they 

 always fly for shelter if by chance they have been flushed 

 anywhere in the open grounds, or among the buttes. 

 When scattered in these ravines excellent sport can be 

 had with them, as they lie close and generally rise sinj^jly, 

 and as the sportsman is frequently above them, they 

 present easy marks as they fly out of the bushes into the 

 open, or rise above the cover if declining to leave the 

 place of refuge. 



The Prairie Sharp-tail or White-belly, as it is some- 

 times called, is partly migratory, and, as I have already 

 said, its habits vary somewhat in the different seasons, 

 being a good deal of a prairie dweller in the summer. l)Ut 

 more of a woodland bird in the winter. But this is natural, 

 as it would not be likely to remain on the storm-swept 

 plains during the severe weather, if the shelter that the 

 trees afforded was near at hand and easily secured. In 

 the autumn and winter the flocks unite and form great 

 packs of several hundred individuals and are then wary 

 and very watchful, running swiftly away from any object 



