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Show 36 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. Approaching the Rocky Mountains, almost the only bird seen, is a variety of the bubo, a small brown owl, that burrows in the ground, one of a strange co1npany of three, occupying the l1oles of the little prairie dog, along with the rattlesnake. We believe every observant traveler upon the plains will endorse the assertion, that the three often resort to the same hole, at the same time, for protection or safety. Between the Rocky Mountains and Carson riv.er, or the Sierra Nevada mountains, a fe"v water-fow 1 are seen along the rivers, and sage hens-tetrao phasianellusupon the bottoms ; these, with an occasional small flock of black birds, upon the Humboldt river, and the list of the birds of the plains, along the line of the emigrant trail, is full. .ANIMALS, INSECTS .AND REPTILES OF THE PLAINS. Immediately after leaving the timbered lands that border the Missouri river, the country to the west is a rolling or undulating plain, almost destitute of timber except along the streams, though every where covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. In this open country, but few animals are seen by the emigrant, except the co1nmon deer, the 'vhite or dusky wolf-canis nubilis, or gigas-and the antelope-antilo capra-an animal smaller than the common deer, and extremely fleet and shy. , Before reaching Fort Kearny, but few traces of the buffalo are seen, except occasionally their skull-bones; NATIONAL WA.GON ROAD GUIDE. 37 the living animal is now seldom seen as far east as this. West of Fort l{earny, dusky wolves are numerous. This animal, the size of a large dog, is ferocious towards other animals of the plains, they seem always to roam solitary, at least this is their habit, during the season of our emigration, never in packs like the coyote or prairie wolf, and subsist in summer, at least to a great extent, upon the calves and cows of the buffalo, attacking the latter at a time when of all others, they are the least f I able to defend themselves. These wolves, though bold, and often approaching very near to camp, seldom attack the emigrant's animals, except they find them lame and I abandoned, or dead. The common· prairie wolf, or coyote, cqnis lf!;trans, in packs of from three to a dozen, are musical fellows, and almost nightly serenade the trhveller, each with its own piquant solo, with variations strangely cornmingled. The buffalo, though numerous upon the. plains but a few miles back of the sand bluffs that border the Platt6 • bottoms on the south and north, are now seldom seen along the river, except by the first of the season's migration ; though their deep worn trails, numerous bones and wallowing holes, seen in every direction, are so many evidences of their having been but a few years since, far more numerous along the route than now. The~e animals have a habit of throwing themselves upon their sides upon the ground, and then by giving their feet and legs the usual walking motion, their bodies revolve, their feet making the circumference of a circle, and this move- |