FOREST AND STREAM 
81 
trapped with Old Jim some years ago. It is a 
fine method and if you work it right there is no 
doubt but that you will get them. Good luck, 
anyhow, Dan. I will be up this Winter for sure 
and we will enjoy many days together here. Eh?” 
In due course of time we struck in on the 
premises of old Farmer Brown, a man of ex¬ 
cellent character and of a pleasant, even tem¬ 
perament that made friendship an assurance. We 
went directly to the house without much dis¬ 
cussion upon events in the world about us made 
known our mission. 
“Yes, yes, he breathed—“the chickens. Sure, 
Daniel here says there is a flock of them around 
that he has located. You are entitled to shoot 
as much as you please, boys. Help yourselves. 
Those ducks certainly came in fine, I’ll tell you. 
I am not forgetting that of course, which is not 
the least. By all means help yourselves.” 
With this foundation of good will satisfactorily 
imbedded we went about our plan of circum¬ 
venting the flighty ones, and it was a ticklish, 
yet withal highly exciting adventure. The field 
located, we decided to encircle it, each choos¬ 
ing a certain point, and from this point gradually 
drawing in on them, so that any way they would 
fly they would, or should, come within range of 
our guns. Plans laid, we procedeed about our 
little undertaking. 
Now off from the center of the field there 
was a depression in the ground where the grain 
had not been cut and it instinctively impressed 
me as being just the place where such birds 
would keep themselves. I first satisfied myself 
that the boys were in place and then started 
forward. My eyes, very quick, as a rule, to 
note things, from long association with Nature, 
by investigation and 
isltuidy, kept raking my 
surroundings with the 
hope that I would spot 
the quarry. But I cov¬ 
ered the place in vain. 
The elusive ones were 
not there. I noted also 
that the 'boys were doing 
no special cannonading; 
but I kept steadily on 
hoping one or the other 
o'f the two would start 
the ball rolling. The 
situation eventually re¬ 
solved itself into a pa¬ 
tient, painstaking con¬ 
sideration of every bush 
and bunch of grass, for 
it seems they lay pretty 
cose in hiding. And so 
it proved to ibe. 
For as I stepped cau¬ 
tiously forward at a 
tempting place, half sur- All 
rounded by brush, there 
was a thunder of beaten wings at my right and 
up rose four of the kingly feathered ones. Never 
have I clipped in two shots as quickly as those 
from the double gun that day; it was an instan¬ 
taneous, simultaneous exhibition, and being close 
bunched I got the two of them, and breaking 
gun reloaded with very shaking hands. The 
other two thundered away and happened to pass 
near to Daniel’s long reaching single barrel. 
Followed a sharp, shattering detonation upon the 
silenced air and down tumbled the forward one. 
While this was going on, up rose some ten others 
at various intervals at the side of the patch, out 
of the reach of Fred’s gun, though he shot 
swift—but scored nothing. 
Three chickens were bagged safe and sound 
and were tucked into the hunting coat pockets. 
We drew together and consulted as to what our 
next performance should be, and how we should 
Easier Hunting With the Dogs. 
successfully go about it. I had a dandy speci¬ 
men for mounting purposes, to be placed 
eventually with my collection in the city. 
We had noted the general direction of the 
other members of the covey and .thither we now 
proceeded, spreading out so as to take in all of 
the ground thought as possible cover for the ex- 
the Regular Fixin s for Hunting Prairie Chicken. 
tremely sensitive ones. I held the center, while 
the boys went, each on one side slightly ahead, 
proceeding much in what one would call, “fan- 
shape formation.” Thus, any rising in the cen¬ 
ter, if not rounded in promptly by the central 
man, the other two would possibly catch out of 
mid-air. 
The oddity of this hunt lay in the fact that 
though we covered carefully, thoroughly, the 
territory thought to hold our prey we still found 
no trace of them. This seemed mysterious, for 
certainly I had seen them sail on spread wings 
downward at practically a point which the cen¬ 
ter of our present hunt would have taken in. 
Might have risen and flown on,” suggested 
Daniel, with the keen sense of speculation bred 
of insight. “I thought sure they would be right 
in around these bushes here.” 
Queer,” said Fred, biting off a hoof of 
Piper. “1 tell you now, it seems to me they 
can’t be so very far off at that. Perhaps they 
are right ahead. They are wild sort of now 
and may have run ahead quite a distance.” 
<( “ Well > we will go onward as before,” I said. 
“At any rate we can hunt and hunting is half 
of the pleasure.” 
We ranged out as before and with guns at 
ready searched every nook and cranny for the 
game we sought; and listened with keen ears 
for twitter or rustle of preparation to rise but 
found them not, covering something like a half 
mile in our jaunt. We again drew together. 
“Odd,” said Fred, bending a bush with an 
ounce of diluted Heidsec. ‘They certainly have 
vanished into thin air, or where are they, that’s 
what I want to know.” 
<4 “Tell you what,” Daniel made bold to suggest. 
“We will spread out more. They may have 
gone either to one side or another and thus es¬ 
caped us. Then again, while we saw them seem 
to drop down here they may have turned aside.” 
This seemed a reasonable sidelight to the prop¬ 
osition and we took it up, but though we hunted 
vigorously and enthusiastically, up and down, not 
a prairie chicken did we see. Somewhat mysti¬ 
fied we returned three hours later to Farmer 
Brown and told ouf tale. 
“Yes, they certainly must be wizards, them 
birds, ’ said Brown. “At 
best I reckon you are 
lucky a't hitting into the 
brand here at all—be¬ 
cause I never knew them 
to hang around here to 
any noticeable extent. 
Seems the fires over in 
Dakota has chased them 
this way. If they be 
flighty 'there is a good 
reason for it. Now like 
as not, having dogs, good 
at the scent, you would 
strike into them.” “Are 
your dogs any good at 
this sort of work?” asked 
Fred, of Daniel. 
“Not very,” returned 
Daniel; and went on to 
explain that while one 
had setter blood in him 
the best he eOhld get Out 
of him was genuine fur 
trailing; the trailing 
blood being dominant to 
the bird-locating quality. We stayed that night at 
Farmer Brown’s meaning to have another try 
at the elusive ones in the morning. 
With this thought firm in our minds, on 
top of a big supper we waited for daylight. 
At daylight we hustled into our coats and 
were out in the morning air, ready again 
to try our luck. The same field we again hunt¬ 
ed, spreading out so as to cover the ground care¬ 
fully; but though we hunted, not only that field 
but all the adjacent territory, still we found no 
