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THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



71 



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yards 

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 told us 



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shoot Bighorns. I hope this promise may be better 

 kept than that of Mr. Chardon, who told me that should 

 he have one killed within forty miles he would send Alexis 

 back with it at once. We heard some had been killed, 

 but this may not be true; at any rate, men are men all 

 over the world, and a broken promise is not unheard-of. 

 This evening Mr. Culbertson presented me with a splendid 

 dress, as well as one to Harris and one to Bell, and prom- 

 ised one to Sprague, which I have no doubt he will have. 

 Harris and Sprague went off to procure Woodpeckers' 

 nests, and brought the most curious set of five birds that 

 I ever saw, and which I think will puzzle all the naturalists 

 in the world. The first was found near the nest, of which 

 Sprague shot the female, a light-colored Red-shafted Wood- 

 pecker. It proved to be of the same color, but had the 

 rudiments of black stripes on the cheeks. Next, Sprague 

 shot an adult yellow-winged male, with the markings prin- 

 cipally such as are found in the Eastern States. Harris 

 then shot a young Red-shafted, just fledged, with a black 

 stripe on the cheek. His next shot was a light-colored 

 Red-shafted male, with black cheeks, and another still, a 

 yellow Red-shafted with a red cheek. ^ After all this Mr. 

 Culbertson proposed to run a sham Buffalo hunt again. 

 He, Harris, and Squires started on good horses, went 

 about a mile, and returned full tilt, firing and crackirg. 

 Squires fired four times and missed once. Harris did rot 

 shoot at all ; but Mr. Culbertson fired eleven times, start- 

 ing at the onset with an empty gun, snapped three times, 

 and reached the fort with his gun loaded. A more won- 

 derful rider I never saw. 



July 2, Sunday. The weather was cool and pleasant 

 this morning, with no mosquitoes, which indeed — plenti- 

 ful and troublesome as they are — Provost tells me are 



^ The above is a very good example of the way these Woodpeckers vary 

 in color, presenting a case which, as Audubon justly observes, is a "puzzle 

 to all the naturalists in the world." See note, p. 14. — E. C. 



