Great Plains Birds by Larkin Powell

Author:Larkin Powell
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: NAT043000 Nature / Animals / Birds, NAT045020 Nature / Ecosystems & Habitats / Plains & Prairies
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books

39. Depiction of hunters shooting prairie-chickens, titled “Our first shooting” from W. E. Webb, Buffalo Land (1872).

Of course, Weston was writing to sell tickets on the railroad, so we might be hesitant to accept his flowery descriptions at face value. But journal after journal and book after book make it clear that bird numbers were high enough to afford hunters easy and fulfilling days in the field. Regarding a hunt in present-day Kansas, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dodge wrote:

The most delightful hunting . . . I have ever had was in the country south-east of Fort Dodge on the small tributaries of the Cimarron River. I append the record of a hunt of twenty days in the section, in October 1872, in which one officer besides myself and three English gentlemen participated. Everything bagged was counted as one, and an idea of the spot can be formed from this list:

127 buffalo

2 deer (red) [modern name: elk]

11 antelope [pronghorn]

154 turkeys

5 geese

223 teal

45 mallard

49 shovel-bill [northern shoveler]

57 widgeon

38 butter-ducks [bufflehead]

3 shell-ducks [canvasback]

17 herons

143 meadowlarks, doves, robins, etc

6 cranes

187 quail

32 grouse

84 field-plover

33 yellow legs (snipe)

12 jack snipe [woodcock]

1 pigeon

9 hawks

3 owls

2 badgers

7 racoons [sic]

11 rattlesnakes

1 blue bird for his sweetheart’s hat

Total head bagged: 1,262

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