When the first explorers and settlers pushed west they found the skies filled with flocks of upland birds and waterfowl, birds that darkened the horizons like buffalo darkened the prairie. Western Skies is a brilliant writer's story of chasing those horizons, with dog and shotgun and a hiker's sense of history.Huge sage grouse still strut on the ridges of the sage brush wilderness, and sharptailed grouse still sail down the buffalo-berry draws - along with newcomers brought from the Old World, ringnecked pheasant and Hungarian partridge that have adapted as well to the American prairie as to their native steppes in Europe and Asia. And every autumn, unending flocks of geese and ducks still sweep down from the tundra across the plains. It's a semi-natural world made up of miles of grass and squares of wheat, perfect habitat for the birds and also for the hunter who wants to wander in all directions, wherever the horizon beckons. And there is still great sport, which Barsness records in careful detail and strong narrative.This is a book all birdhunters will cherish. (51/2 X 81/4, 160 pages)