Outdoor pastimes of an American hunterRoosevelt, Theodore
General
Outdoor pastimes of an American hunter
Roosevelt, Theodore
Hunting -- United States; Hunting -- West (U.S.)
Bobcats are very fond of lurking round prairie-dog towns as soon as the
prairie-dogs come out in spring. In this part of Colorado, by the way,
the prairie-dogs were of an entirely different species from the common
kind of the plains east of the Rockies.
We found that the bobcats sometimes made their lairs along the rocky
ledges or in holes in the cut banks, and sometimes in thickets, prowling
about during the night, and now and then even during the day. We never
chased them unless the dogs happened to run across them by accident when
questing for cougar, or when we were returning home after a day when we
had failed to find cougar. Usually the cat gave a good run, occasionally
throwing out the dogs by doubling or jack-knifing. Two or three times
one of them gave us an hour’s sharp trotting, cantering, and galloping
through the open cedar and pinyon groves on the table-lands; and the
runs sometimes lasted for a much longer period when the dogs had to go
across ledges and through deep ravines.
On one of our runs a party of ravens fluttered along from tree to tree
beside us, making queer gurgling noises and evidently aware that they
might expect to reap a reward from our hunting. Ravens, multitudes of
magpies, and golden and bald eagles were seen continually, and all four
flocked to any carcass which was left in the open. The eagle and the
raven are true birds of the wilderness, and in a way their presence both
heightened and relieved the iron desolation of the wintry mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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