. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. 246 OEDERS OF BIRDS—UPLAND GAME-BIRDS Nebraska ^Ycrc well stocked with Prairie-Chick- ens. Ill spring they courted openly, and even ]jri)udly. 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, a
. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. 246 OEDERS OF BIRDS—UPLAND GAME-BIRDS Nebraska ^Ycrc well stocked with Prairie-Chick- ens. Ill spring they courted openly, and even ]jri)udly. 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 ivas 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 GROtJSE, 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 cjuail 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 sho
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookp, booksubjectnaturalhistory
