{232} The whole length of the horned frog is from two to five inches—body flatted horizontally, oval-shaped, and between one and two inches wide in the middle. The back is beautifully variegated, with white and brown, and sometimes a yellowish purple. The belly is whitish and covered with brown specks. It acquired its name from a pair of short horns projecting from the top of the head—with other smaller horny protuberances upon the head and body. It has a short tail, which gives it a lizard-like appearance. It is a very inoffensive creature, and may be handled with perfect impunity, notwithstanding its uncouth appearance, and sometimes vicious demonstrations.
As birds mostly incline to the timbered regions, there is but a scant variety to be met with upon the plains. About the Cross Timbers and indeed on all the brushy creeks, especially to the southward, are quantities of wild turkeys, which are frequently seen ranging in large flocks in the bordering prairies. That species of American grouse, known west as the prairie-hen, is very abundant on the frontier, and is quite destructive, in autumn, to the prairie corn-fields. This fowl is rarely seen over two hundred miles beyond the border. Partridges are found about as far west; but their number is quite limited anywhere beyond the precincts of the settlements. About the streams there are different species of geese and ducks, as well as both sand-hill and white cranes: also flocks of a species of plover and {233} curlew. Add to these numbers of hawks and ravens, and we have most of the fowls of the [p283] Prairies. Flocks of the latter follow in the wake of caravans with even greater constancy than wolves.
The bee, among Western pioneers, is the proverbial precursor of the Anglo-American population: in fact, the aborigines of the frontier have generally corroborated the notion; for they used to say, they knew the whites were not far behind, when bees appeared among them. This partial coincidence, I suppose, is the result of their emigration westward being at nearly an even pace with that of the settlers. As yet no honey-bees seem to have been discovered as far westward as any part of the Rocky Mountains. They are scattered, however, to the distance of two or three hundred miles west of the Missouri and Arkansas frontier, where there is timber affording them suitable habitations. On the Santa Fé route but few have been found beyond the Council Grove.
FOOTNOTES:
[163] Mustang would most naturally seem a corruption of the Spanish adjective mostrenco (without owner), but the Mexicans call wild horses mesteñas, a synonyme in one of its senses with mostrenco.—Gregg.
[164] The bulls usually shed in the spring, from the shoulders back, but not in front, which imparts to them quite a lion-like appearance.—Gregg.
[165] It has often been remarked by travellers, that however much buffalo meat one may eat, no inconvenience is ever suffered from it.—Gregg.
[166] Often, but it would seem improperly, called 'buffalo robes.'—Gregg.
[167] Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville was born in France in 1796. At an early age he came to America with his mother, where he was cared for by Thomas Paine, who secured for him a cadetship in the United States Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1819, when he entered the army. During Lafayette's visit of 1825, Bonneville was detailed as his aide. He was later stationed on the Western frontier, and obtaining leave of absence (1831) planned an extensive fur-trading and exploring expedition. This is the journey graphically described by Washington Irving, in Rocky Mountains, or Scenes, Incidents and Adventures in the far West, digested from the journal of B. L. E. Bonneville of the army of the United States (Phila., 1837). Bonneville was absent from civilization for three years (1832-35), and wandered as far west as the Columbia. His trading venture was but moderately successful, and he returned to army life, participating in both the Seminole and Mexican wars, in the latter of which he was severely wounded. During the War of Secession, he was stationed chiefly at frontier posts, being breveted brigadier-general in 1865. He died at Fort Smith in 1878.—Ed.
[168] For the Assiniboin consult our volume xiv, p. 275, note 197.—Ed.