246 



OKDERS OF BIRDS— UPLAND GAME-BIRDS 



Nebraska were well stocked with Prairie-Chick- 

 ens. 



In spring they courted openly, and even 

 proudly. The cocks strutted, and inflated the 

 bare, salmon-yellow air-sacs on the sides of their 

 necks, bowed low, and " Boo-hoo-hooed ! " 

 until the sound rolled over the bare earth in 

 great waves. Then they scattered, to nest and 

 rear their young. In summer, they hid them- 

 selves closely; and no self-respecting farmer 



early spring, and the long, flaming days of July 

 and August. If the farmers only had been far- 

 sighted, and diligent in protecting for their all- 

 too-scanty recreation, and for their own tables, 

 the game that was theirs, they might have had 

 Prairie-Chickens to hunt for a century. 



But the game-devouring octopi began to 

 reach out, from Water Street, Chicago, and 

 from New York and Boston. An army of men 

 began to "shoot for the market," and the Pin- 



PINNATED GROUSE, OR PRAIRIE-CHICKEN. 



dreamed of such a low act as killing one, or 

 meddling with a nest. 



In the fall, after the harvesting, and just 

 before the corn-cutting and corn-husking, the 

 young broods were ready to fly, and the flocks 

 began to gather. They first ranged through 

 the wheat and oat stubble, gleaning; and the 

 sport they furnished there, — dear me! Those 

 were the golden days of life on a prairie-farm. 

 The flocks of Pinnated Grouse and quail were 

 the rightful heritage of the boys and men who 

 toiled in the fields through the raw cold of 



nated Grouse and quail began to "go east," 

 by the barrel. Some markets were so glutted, 

 time after time, that unnumbered barrels of 

 dead birds spoiled. That was before the days 

 of cold storage. 



The efforts that were made to stop that 

 miserable business were feeble to the point of 

 imbecility; and absolutely nothing permanent 

 was accomplished. Had farmers generally 

 stopped all shooting on their farms, as every 

 farmer should, the war on those birds would 

 have stopped also ; but the barn was not locked 



