CKOUSK, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 131 



berry patches. In winter, flocks of sometimes ;i hundred or more 

 wary old birds gather together, but they light in the treetops to 

 inspect the horizon for danger before settling down to breakfast in 

 the cornfield, or else fly from their soft beds of snow to some big- 

 open field where there is not so much as a bush or stick to hide a 

 lurking enemy. As the snow gets deeper it only brings them up 

 nearer the berries, haws, and buds, which furnish the bulk of their 

 winter food. AYhen the snow hardens to a rigid crust and a few 

 patches of bare ground appear you hear just at sunrise a low boom- 

 ing sound, perhaps a mile away, answered by one after another of 

 the awakened cocks. This will be heard for hours every morning 

 from the last of February till the first of May in the grouse country, 

 for then the birds are having their famous dances. A few cocks and 

 hens gather on a frozen lake or the open prairie, and the males fight 

 and strut and boom in ardent rivalry before the apparently uncon- 

 cerned females. They inflate the orange air sacs on each side of the 

 neck, spread the yellow fringe over the eyes, and with widespread 

 tail, drooping wings, erect neck tufts, and lowered head emit the air 

 with the low booming sound. The booming is kept up throughout 

 the breeding season. It is a most deceptive sound, at twenty feet 

 often seeming far away, and at a long distance sounding close by. 



VERXON BAILEY. 







305a. T. a. attwateri (Bend.). ATTWATER PRAIRIE HEN. 



Similar to T. americanus, but smaller and darker ; usually more chestnut 

 on the neck ; wing 1 coverts with smaller, more tawny spots ; tarsus more 

 scantily feathered, feathers never reaching base of toes ; in summer, greater 

 part of tarsus naked ; in winter, stripe of bare skin on back of tarsus. 



Distribution. Coast districts of southwestern Louisiana and Texas. 



307. Tympanuchus pallidicinctus Ridgw. LESSER PRAIRIE 

 HEN. 



Like the prairie hen but paler, and bars of back in threes, a wide brown 

 bar inclosed by two narrow black bars. Male : wing 8.20-8.30, tail 4.00- 

 4.20. Female : wing- 8.00-8.20, tail 3.50-4.00. 



Distribution. Eastern edge of the plains, from Kansas south to 

 western Texas. 



Nest. On ground in meadows or other open situations. Eggs : 8 to 1 2 

 or more, grayish, olive, or buffy, usually plain, but sometimes spotted with 

 darker. 



GENUS PEDICECETES. 



General Characters. Head lightly crested, a naked patch over each 

 eye ; neck without obviously peculiar feathers, but with a hidden patch of 

 distensible skin, reddish in the breeding season, over which lies a series of 

 slightly enlarged feathers ; feet feathered to the toes ; toes with a con- 

 spicuous fringe of horny processes in winter ; tail much shorter than wings, 

 graduated, feathers square at tips, the middle pair projecting much beyond 

 the rest. 



